Love to Hate You
by lannah
Summary: REVISED Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances. RT
1. Chapter One

**Title:** Love to Hate You

**Author:** Lannah

**Summary:** Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.

**Pairing:** R/T. What

**Disclaimer: **I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Gilmore Girls. I have about $2 to my name so if anyone wants to sue me, they won't be getting a whole lot.

* * *

The hotel revolving door swung around, bringing into the foyer a cold gust of December wind and snow amidst a large group of newly arriving high school students. The sound of excited chatter buzzed through the foyer as a young teacher attempted to gain their attention, especially from a particularly rowdy group of boys at the back of the group. 

"Alright everyone, listen up," Mr. Medina's voice rang through the hotel foyer.

The chatter gradually died down as one by one students focused their attention on him.

Mr. Medina continued. "First of all, I have your room assignments, so come get them from me after I call out your names. Secondly, I expect everyone, and I mean _everyone_," he glanced pointedly at the previously rowdy group of boys in the back, "to be on their best behavior during the course of this trip."

He paused as a grumble went through the crowd of students, before he continued, "I know you've heard this many times before, but keep in mind that you are representing Chilton and any inappropriate behavior will not be taken lightly. In other words, no trouble. Am I clear, Mr. Dugrey and Mr. Jones?"

"As glass," a messy-haired, blonde boy, otherwise known as Tristan DuGrey, replied.

"Your concern touches us," a dark-haired boy, a.k.a. Brendan Jones, added. "But you don't have to worry Mr. M. We are the epitome of all that is good."

Mr. Medina rolled his eyes, while the other students laughed at the antics of the two boys. "Need I remind you of the various incidents that have occurred throughout the school year?"

Brendan shrugged, feigning innocence. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I'm sure you don't," Mr. Medina answered, the hint of a smile twitching at the corner of his lips.

He cleared his throat before addressing all the students again. "I'm going to hand out your room assignments now. Everyone is in either groups of two or three. First group - Paris, Madeline and Louise..."

He continued to hand out the room assignments as the students began chattering again, excited about the next few days.

* * *

Soon, students slowly filtered out of the foyer and began heading up to their assigned rooms. Tristan, Brendan and another friend, Austin, finally decided to quit checking out random girls wandering in and out of the hotel and headed towards the elevators. 

"I don't know about you gentlemen," Brenden started to say, "…but I intend to make complete use of my two weeks here and take in all of the, uh, sights," he finished, winking at a passing blonde.

Austin made a face as they neared the elevator. "Jones, that woman was at least thirty."

"Age is nothing but a number, my friend. Nothing but a number," Brendan answered, while continuing to flirt with each passing female.

"If you'd quit looking for ass for one minute," Tristan said, "you would realize that we have an entire room to ourselves and…" he paused, shooting a glance at Brenden, to cut off any unwanted comment that he suspected was about to come out of his friend's mouth, "…you all know what that means, right?."

All three boys looked at each other and just grinned.

"Parttaaayy," Tristan continued in a sing-song voice, proceeding to perform a very stupid dance.

Unfortunately (or maybe, not-so-unfortunately), his celebratory dance was soon interrupted by a rather irritated sounding voice from behind them.

"Are you three going to get on the elevator or what?"

The three guys turned around to find a very annoyed, blonde Paris behind them, her two friends, Madeline and Louise, in tow. Austin and Brendan immediately clammed up. They had learned a long time ago that one should not mess with Paris Gellar when she was annoyed, pissed off or looking like the way she did at that exact moment.

Tristan, on the other hand, did not seem to follow that specific do-not-mess-with-Paris-when-she-has-that-look rule and never took heed of it. He was either very brave or very stupid. His friends definitely thought it was quite possibly both.

He grinned and while doing so, proceeded to drape his arm across the girl's shoulder. "Paris, darling! How are you this fine day?"

Paris pursed her lips in annoyance. "Are you drunk?"

The grin widened, as Tristan put up his hands, in mock-surrender. "Now why you even suggest that?"

Paris raised an eyebrow. "Do I really need to answer that?"

She huffed and pushed past the three guys to get in front of the elevator. "I really don't know why they let you three on this trip," she grumbled.

"Because everyone loves us and we provide all of the entertainment necessary. Without us, you would be quite bored," Tristan answered, dramatically waving his hands around, proceeding to walk backwards into the now opening elevator doors.

He also gracefully managed to walk smack into someone in the process.

"Ouch!" a girl's voice exclaimed.

"Oh shit, sorry," Tristan answered, turning around, not looking sorry at all.

His eyes locked with a pair of startling blue eyes while the others stood snickering at him. He took in the girl's appearance. Straight brown hair. Gorgeous blue eyes. Around 5'6"ish.

'Definitely hot.' he thought to himself as he gathered his wits.

He plastered on his infamous, mega-watt smile. "Hello."

The girl raised her eyebrows at him. "Goodbye," she replied, as she made her way out of the elevator, towards the foyer.

"Ouch! Rejected!" Brenden exclaimed, laughing. "DuGrey, I think that was one of the first times ever!"

"Hmm. Someone actually saw through the DuGrey looks and charm. Maybe she's not a complete bimbo like half of the females that exist around this place," Paris commented, stepping into the open elevator.

Ignoring the comments of the two, Tristan's eyes followed the brunette as she walked away, a small grin playing on his lips.

"Hard to get. My specialty," he muttered quietly, then turned and followed the others into the elevator.

* * *

The brunette in question, Rory Gilmore, headed out of the hotel and walked down to the ski lodge situated not too far away from the hotel she was currently staying at. 

"Angela!" She called out to the dark-haired young woman behind the café counter upon entering the ski lodge. "I need my coffee and brownie desperately," Rory all but whined.

Angela smiled. "Coming right up. Aleesha's over there," she added, indicating a girl sitting at a table.

Rory glanced around and saw her curly-haired friend sitting at their usual table and staring absently into space. She headed over to the girl, groaning and dropping her head on the table once she had sat down.

At the sudden noise and newly occupied seat, Aleesha started from her reverie and looked quizzically at Rory. "What's up with you?"

Rory lifted her head up, off the table. "I have been having the worst day ever."

The girl grinned and patted her on the head. "Tell your buddy Leeshy all about it. I am after all, the budding psychiatrist."

"And your therapy sessions will probably just make all of your crazy patients even worse." Rory commented, dryly.

Aleesha stuck her tongue out at Rory. "Just for that, I'm not giving you any free advice."

Rory shrugged. "Fine."

They both sat in silence for a total of five seconds before Aleesha broke it. "Alright fine, tell me what's up."

Rory laughed. "Well for starters, I didn't have _any_ coffee today. I'm talking none! Not even a drop. Not even a coffee-tasting chocolate bar. Not even a coffee bean or…"

Aleesha cut her off. "No coffee. I got you. That's bad," she paused and then began to nod her head as if just realizing something. "…especially for me since I have to deal with a coffee-crazed lunatic," she finished with a smug look on her face.

"If I had something to throw at you, I would," Rory deadpanned, glaring at her friend, before continuing on with her rant. "Okay, so no coffee. Second, I kept walking into stuff all day today. I have a huge bruise on my toe and it hurts. A lot. Oh and then some stupid guy decides to walk into me…"

"Was he hot?" Aleesha interrupted again.

Rory looked at her friend disbelievingly. "I'm in pain here and you're asking if the guy was hot?"

Aleesha shrugged. "Well, was he?"

Rory groaned. "I don't know. I didn't really pay much attention to him."

Now it was Aleesha's turn to look at her in disbelief.

"I didn't!" Rory protested. "Fine…I guess he was kind of hot. From what I did happen to see," she added. "But he seemed like a total asshole." she finished frowning.

"Why do you get all the luck?" Aleesha grumbled, placing her chin in her palm.

"You want an asshole?"

"Well, if he's a _hot_ asshole, then I can deal with that," Aleesha grinned, wiggling her eyebrows.

Rory rolled her eyes but then smiled as Angela brought her a huge, steaming cup of coffee and an espresso brownie. "Thank you! You are a lifesaver," she gushed.

"Yes Ang, you are," Aleesha said. "Or else, I would have to deal with the symptoms of coffee withdrawal all day and it would not have been pretty, let me tell you."

Upon witnessing the look on Rory's face, Aleesha hastily changed the subject. "Did you get our schedule for tomorrow?"

"No. Jake said we should pick it up in the morning at the front desk. But we're teaching on bunny hill number five at ten. That's all I know for sure," Rory answered.

"Speaking of Jake," Aleesha stood up. "I'll be back in two minutes. I have to go drop this off for him," she indicated the papers in front of her.

"What's that…?" Rory barely finished the question before Aleesha was up and out the door.

* * *

Three cups of coffee, a finished brownie and ten minutes later, Rory was still waiting on Aleesha to get back from her so-called two minute impromptu trip. 

Rory tapped her fingers impatiently on the table. "Where is that girl?"

"You know, I hear talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity," a smooth, male voice said behind her.

Rory turned around, only to be met with the sight of the same blonde guy who had crashed into her earlier that day.

"Well, you know, I hear that, _that_ isn't the greatest pick up line ever invented," she quipped, returning her attention to her empty coffee cup.

"Who said it was a pick up line?" he asked, leaning against the table.

"Who said it wasn't?" she replied not looking up from her coffee.

The blonde guy grinned. "I'm Tristan."

Rory sighed. "Well Tristan, I'm very happy that you know your name. That will help you a lot in today's society."

"You know what would also help me a lot?" he asked, leaning slightly closer to her.

She turned to him, her only response being the raising of her eyebrow.

"If I knew your name," he continued, smirking.

"I have a question," Rory said, completely avoiding his comment. "Does this usually work for you?"

He continued to smirk. "I don't know. I've never tried it before."

Rory couldn't help but laugh. "Somehow, I find that very hard to believe."

Tristan sighed.

Rory had a feeling that he was not used to working so hard just to get a girl's name.

"Ok, maybe I have done it before. _But_, you're the only one that has really interested me," he answered.

"Yippee for me," Rory muttered, sarcastically then perked up as she spotted Aleesha walking back into the room.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Rory turned to Tristan. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Tristan. But I have somewhere to be right now."

Rory headed over to Aleesha and immediately dragged her back out of the room.

"What are you doing?" Aleesha yelped. "And who was that guy you were with? He was _hot_!" she finished as she turned around to try to get a look at Tristan one more time.

"That was the stupid guy who walked into me today," Rory answered frowning.

Aleesha stared at her. "That's what you call _kind of_ hot?" she asked incredulously. "I wonder what incredibly hot would be for you," she mumbled.

Rory ignored her and tried to shake off the feeling that she was being watched. She turned her head slightly to the side as they exited the room and realized that Tristan's eyes were still on her.

* * *

So, what do you think of the newly revised chapter? Reviews are always welcome! 


	2. Chapter Two

**Title:** Love to Hate You

**Author:** Lannah

**Summary:** Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.

**Pairing:** R/T. What

**Disclaimer: **I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Gilmore Girls. I have about $2 to my name so if anyone wants to sue me, they won't be getting a whole lot.

* * *

The next morning, Rory awoke, bright and early, for her upcoming ski lesson. When she was ready, Rory headed over to Aleesha's room, only to find that the girl was still not ready and was hopping about her room not completely dressed and attempting to find various items of clothing.

Rory groaned and flopped down on a chair. She had a feeling they would be there for a while.

"Hurry up! We're supposed to be on the hill at least a half an hour before the lesson," Rory said impatiently to Aleesha once she had managed to find her hat, gloves and the other half of her boots.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming. Jeez," Aleesha grumbled and followed Rory out of the hotel.

Rory thought she heard Aleesha add under her breath, "Someone didn't have her coffee yet…"

As they neared the ski lodge, they dumped her ski equipment on the snow and they headed inside.

"Morning Rosa," Rory called to the woman at the desk, following Aleesha inside. "Can you give us our schedules and the attendance list please?"

The woman at the front desk smiled. "Here you two go," Rosa answered, handing them a clipboard with some paperwork.

"Thanks," they answered in unison.

Rory examined the schedule as they hurried back towards the door. "We have a break at twelve thirty…"

"Good, I can eat," Aleesha interrupted.

"And we're teaching on hill five," Rory continued, her head bent as they exited the building, almost knocking over two incoming guys in the process.

* * *

"Whoa…where's the fire?" Brendan muttered, as two girls practically flew past them.

He stopped for a minute and turned around to look at the girls' retreating backs. One bent down to grab her ski equipment from the ground and almost tripped in the process.

He chuckled when a thought occurred to him.

"Hey, isn't that the elevator girl?" Brendan asked Tristan, who was currently with him. "…the one who wouldn't tell you her name?" he continued.

Tristan rolled his eyes at the comment but nodded. "Yeah, that's her," he said as he watched the two girls walk away.

"Her friend's cute..." Brendan said, thoughtfully.

Tristan shook his head in amusement and a slow grin spread across his face.

"What?" Brendan asked warily. His tone then changed as he realized that Tristan was up to something. "I know that look. What trouble are we going to involve ourselves in now?" he asked excitedly.

"It's not trouble…technically," Tristan replied. "But, did you happen to hear their conversation?"

"Yes," he answered confused. "But what does that have to do with anything…" Brendan's voice trailed off, as a knowing grin crossed his features.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Tristan asked conspiratorially.

"I think, we need some ski lessons," Brendan replied.

Having established their plan for the day, the two hurried over to the woman at the front desk, who had previously spoken with the two girls.

"Hello…Rosa," Tristan glanced at the woman's name tag and immediately slipped into charm mode. "We were wondering if we could sign up for the class on hill number five."

Rosa raised her eyebrows. "Hill five?"

Brendan and Tristan both nodded.

"That class starts in twenty minutes...I don't know..."

"Please?" Brendan pleaded. "This is our first time here and we really wanted to hit the slopes early."

The woman gave them another funny look. "Okay, but you're going to have to hurry."

She grabbed some forms and passed it to them. "You have to fill these out. We offer classes in packages, so pick which one you want-"

"Just sign us up for the most number of classes you offer," Tristan interrupted.

Rosa raised her eyebrows again. "If you say so," she muttered. "Fill in your personal information here and I will take care of the rest. And I need to know which method of payment you would prefer."

After impatiently finishing off the necessary paperwork (without actually reading anything of importance) and getting the proper equipment, the two boys left for their new ski lessons.

"We are _geniuses_," Tristan said as they headed out the door, ski equipment in hand.

"I know. We should win one of those smart people prizes," Brendan added. "You know, that Nobel thing…"

He was cut off as Paris walked through the doors.

"Where are you two going?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well Paris, where does it look like we're going?" Brendan asked, grinning at the scowl that overtook her face at his comment.

"Ski lessons," Tristan supplied. He knew that if he didn't try to diffuse the situation now, Paris would never leave them alone.

"What?" Paris asked confused. "Why do you need lessons? You already know how to ski. You've been doing it for years."

Tristan shrugged. "People always say that you can never stop learning and I happen to agree with them."

With that, both boys continued on to hill five, leaving a very confused Paris behind.

* * *

"So, do we have everyone?" Aleesha asked, surveying the group of pre-teen kids stationed before her on the bunny hill.

After a series of uncertain nods and agreeable murmurs, she continued, "Let's get started then. We'll take attendance, just to make sure we have everyone-"

She was soon cut off by Rory's voice.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Rory muttered as her eyes focused on two guys walking towards them.

Rory noted the confused expression on Aleesha's face as she regarded the two teenage boys walking towards them. When they drew nearer, the blonde one, whom Aleesha recognized as the guy Rory was talking about the day before, handed her a sheet.

"New list," he answered at Aleesha's questioning look. "Rosa said to give it to you."

"You two are in this class?" she asked disbelievingly although it came out as more of a statement than a question.

They both smiled innocently back at her and nodded.

Rory rolled her eyes and turned to the rest of students and began to read off the names on the list, sighing when she reached Tristan's and Brendan's names.

"Alright, my name is Rory and this is Aleesha. Now, I'm assuming that everyone here has never skied before since this is the beginner class," she glanced briefly at the two guys, "so, we're going to start off with the basics, like learning how to put on your ski equipment properly."

* * *

"Everyone grab a partner and follow us," Aleesha continued.

"Nice one, DuGrey," Brendan said sarcastically as he bent down and pretended to "learn" how to put on his boots. "The bunny hill?"

"Well, how was I supposed to know they were teaching a beginner class?" Tristan protested.

"Maybe you should learn to be a better eavesdropper."

"If I remember correctly – which I do - you were eavesdropping as well!"

"I already know how to ski. This is boring," Brendan whined.

"Stop complaining and just pretend that you don't know how to do it," Tristan said slowly, as if speaking to a small child.

"And where is that going to get me?"

"You can ask them a whole lot of questions; pretend you don't know what you're doing, so they'll help you and make sure you fall down a lot, so they'll definitely help you out."

Brendan gave him a disbelieving look. "You're an idiot."

"This idiot found out her name," Tristan retorted.

Brendan groaned and shook his head. "This is such a waste of a day."

"You're the one who wanted to meet her friend. Why are you complaining?"

Brendan simply chose not to reply and groaned as the girls started the group on learning how to balance themselves properly when on skis.

* * *

Rory sighed as she felt Aleesha's eyes on her. Groaning, she looked away from Tristan and Brendan "skiing" down the hill - if one could call it skiing. Either the two guys really did not know how to ski and were, in fact, telling the truth or they were really, really good at faking it. Whichever one, even the ten year old kids were grasping the concept much faster than those two.

"What?" Rory asked impatiently, finally turning towards Aleesha.

Aleesha grinned and looked down at the two boys. "What's up with that?"

Rory sighed again and shrugged. "I have no idea."

"You know," Aleesha mused, "If I didn't know any better, I would say that blondie likes you, yet he's only known you for one day…"

"He does _not_ like me."

Aleesha shrugged, her eyes twinkling. "Maybe you like him."

She was rewarded with a death glare from Rory.

Aleesha laughed and held her hands up in mock surrender. "I'm kidding. Besides, we all know you like studious guys who like to read books and all that other boring-"

She immediately stopped talking as she ducked quickly to avoid the snowball that was heading her way.

* * *

"Should we go talk to them?" Aleesha asked at the end of their ski lesson.

"No," Rory answered, abruptly.

"Why not?"

"Because."

"That's a pretty crappy reason. It's not even a real reason," Aleesha said, pointedly.

"Well, if you want to talk to them so badly, then go do it," Rory retorted, waving her clipboard around.

"I don't have to. They're coming over."

"What? Quick, look busy," Rory answered panicking and began looking around for something to do.

Completely ignoring Rory's protests, Aleesha smiled widely at Tristan and Brendan, who were the only two remaining students after their rather disastrous skiing lesson and who were now heading over towards the two girls.

"Ladies," Brendan greeted.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Aleesha, we have to go. We have another lesson."

"We've got ten minutes. It's all good."

"Great," Rory mumbled quietly, trying to shoot Aleesha the most evil glare she could muster but, to no avail, for Aleesha's attention was now focused on the guys.

Apparently though, Tristan heard her, for he grinned and said, "Aren't you a happy one, Mary?"

Rory looked at him confused and was even more confused when Brendan and Aleesha started laughing. Though, after the glare Rory shot her, Aleesha tried her best to cover up her laughter with unconvincing coughing.

"My name is Rory."

Tristan merely smiled. "Whatever you say, Mary."

In order to prevent an unnecessary murder or anything close to it, Aleesha hastily began speaking before Rory could find ways of killing Tristan.

"So, are you here on a school trip or something?" Aleesha asked.

"_Great," _Rory thought. _"Now, I have to listen to small talk."_

Brenden nodded his head and Rory decided to tune them out. She decided she would have a better and more interesting time by staring up at the sky, the snow, the trees….anywhere, really. Anything had to be better than listening to the conversation taking place. The mention of a specific school's name however, drew her attention back to the current conversation.

"…Chilton."

Rory glanced up when she heard the name. "You go to Chilton?" she asked.

"Why? Are you impressed?" Tristan asked, eyes twinkling mischievously.

"Impressed that someone of your seemingly small intellectual capacity could actually manage to get into that school," she retorted.

Brendan snickered while a slow smile spread across Tristan's face, completely unfazed.

"That's so weird!" Aleesha exclaimed, excitedly. "Rory just got accepted there."

"Really?" both boys asked, returning their attention to Rory.

"Um…yes," Rory answered slowly, a slight blush creeping up her face. She silently vowed to kill Aleesha later on for opening her big mouth and for even beginning a conversation with the two of them. More specifically, for beginning an unnecessary conversation with a certain tall, blonde boy. "I start after the break."

Tristan grinned again. "It looks like we'll be seeing a lot more of you than we thought!"

"Unfortunately," she muttered then glanced at her watch. "Leesh, we have to go, now!" she looked at Aleesha, pleadingly.

"Thanks for the lesion. Bye ladies," Brendan called after them as Rory grabbed Aleesha's hand and proceeded to pull her away from the boys and leave for their next lesson.

"They seem nice," Aleesha commented once they were out of earshot.

"You're only saying that because you think they're hot."

"Well, that too."

Rory paused for a second then voiced a thought she previously had, "Why'd you laugh when he called me Mary?"

Aleesha looked at her closely. "You mean you don't know?"

"Know what?" Rory asked, looking quite confused.

Aleesha laughed, albeit, nervously. "It's just this thing those stupid prep school kids call girls that they think are very…innocent…and, I hate to use the term 'goody-goody' but–"

"I am not a goody-goody," Rory protested. "And how can he declare from two minutes of talking to me that I'm 'innocent' and 'goody-goody'?"

Aleesha shoved her hands in her jacket pockets. "Well, you do _kind of_ have that innocent, little girl thing going on…" she said sheepishly.

Rory didn't answer for a few moments and they walked on in silence.

"That's a stupid insult," she said finally breaking the silence.

"I don't think it's meant to be an _insult_ exactly." Aleesha smiled, in an attempt to reassure her friend.

"You do realize that in a few weeks, I am going to be attending the same school as him, right? And apparently, we're in the same grade. So my chances of not seeing him are going to be very limited."

Aleesha sighed. "Relax. It won't be so bad. And chances are, you may not even have any classes with him at all. If not, then maybe just one."

"That's reassuring," Rory grumbled sarcastically as they arrived at their next lesson's location. "This is going to be one very long break and an even longer school year," she muttered dejectedly.

* * *


	3. Chapter Three

**Title:** Love to Hate You

**Author:** Lannah

**Summary:** Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.

**Pairing:** R/T.

**Disclaimer: **I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Gilmore Girls. I have about $2 to my name so if anyone wants to sue me, they won't be getting a whole lot.

* * *

A couple of days later, Rory and Aleesha were having lunch in the hotel after one of their ski lessons. Fortunately for Rory, she had not seen nor heard Tristan since their last encounter. He and Brendan had also not shown up to any of their subsequent lessons since their first.

'_I wonder why' _she thought dryly, then forced herself to refocus on her current conversation with Aleesha.

"…we should go out somewhere," Aleesha was saying. "We've hardly done anything fun since we've been here."

"We've done lots of fun things!" Rory protested.

"Um…of course we have," Aleesha responded, slowly. "But, I mean fun as in _fun fun_. Like a party or…"

"And where do you plan on finding, said party?" Rory interrupted. "In case you haven't noticed, we're in a ski resort."

"I am sure there are some clubs or club-related things around here," Aleesha said.

"You wouldn't be able to get into a club." Rory said trying to plot a way to get out of whatever Aleesha was planning.

"That's where the 'club-related' things come in," Aleesha responded, then added, "Stop trying to shoot down all of my ideas!"

Rory shook her head. "I'm not! I'm just being realistic-"

"So you're the girl that's been giving Tristan a hard time," a new voce interrupted their conversation.

Rory and Aleesha glanced up to see a blonde girl who had just arrived at their table and was now pulling up an empty chair to sit beside them.

"I'm sorry, what?" Rory asked confused.

"Paris Gellar," the girl clarified. She waved dismissively at two girls beside her who had also proceeded to sit down. "Louise and Madeline," she introduced.

Rory nodded, although still quite confused. However, remembering her manners, she introduced herself and Aleesha.

"Yeah, I know who you are," Paris said briskly. "Well...only your names anyway."

Aleesha raised her eyebrows at Rory, who could tell she was trying not to smile.

"You know, I will say I'm surprised-" the one named Louise started.

"-because anyone who Tristan lays eyes on, let alone talks to him-" Madeline interrupted.

"-immediately goes crazy over him," Louise finished.

"And Louise _you're_ no exception," Paris commented dryly. She turned to Rory and added, "which is why I have to say I have respect for you. Finally, one person who doesn't fall at that boy's feet. It will make Chilton that much easier. Although I have to admit that his taste has improved. I mean, you don't look like the type he normally goes for…" Paris rambled on, but upon seeing the look on Rory's face she added, "which is a good thing, believe me."

Rory blinked at the three of them trying to process all of the information coming towards her. She had a vague idea of what they were talking about but she could not fathom _why _they were talking to her about it. She barely knew them and they barely knew her.

When she had managed to gather her thoughts together, she asked, "Wait, how do you know I'm going to Chilton?" asked Rory.

Paris shrugged. "News travels quickly."

"Besides, we're all friends," Madeline said, "if you can call Tristan and Paris _friends_."

Paris rolled her eyes then asked Rory, "So...what's your G.P.A. like?"

Rory shot her another confused look as Aleesha started to laugh.

"She's a genius," Aleesha said, "but don't worry, I don't think she's ready to steal your job as school president anytime soon," which caused the rest of the girls to start laughing.

"Well, that's good then," Paris said good-naturedly, and then stood up. "We should get going. We have to attend our scheduled class activities."

"What are you guys going to do?" Rory asked.

"I think we're heading down to the 'town'," Madeline answered, making air quotes in the air with her fingers.

"It's fun. There's always lots of stuff to do there," Rory said.

"Like shopping," Aleesha added.

Louise and Madeline's heads perked up at once.

Paris rolled her eyes.

"It was nice meeting you," Rory said as they turned to leave.

"You too," Paris answered, leaving Rory to wonder about what had just happened.

* * *

"I say we throw our shindig tomorrow night or the night after," Brendan said, leaning back in his chair later that evening at dinner.

"_Shindig_?" asked Tristan. "Who says that anymore?"

Brendan shot him a dirty look as Austin spoke up.

"Do it the night after tomorrow because Medina's going to be making sure everyone's in their rooms on time for at least a couple of days. But we should let everyone know."

"Everyone chills in everyone else's room anyway," Tristan said. "What's the point of telling people? They'll find out eventually."

"True," Brenden said, looking around and spotted three girls walking in. "Yo! Gellar!" he called. "Over here!"

Tristan looked around to see Paris, Madeline and Louise. "Do those three ever go anywhere without each other?"

The other two boys chuckled at his question as the girls headed over to their table and sat down.

"I'm hungry," Paris announced, grabbing Austin's menu.

"Well, hello to you too," he said in response.

"Hey Paris, there's a party Friday night - our room," Brendan said. "I know these two will come," he said indicating Madeline and Louise, "what about you?"

Paris stared at him for a few seconds then went back to reading her menu. Tristan snickered.

"What are you guys doing tomorrow?" Louise asked, changing the subject.

The three guys looked at each other and shrugged. "Whatever everyone else is doing."

"Let's go tubing," Madeline squealed, excitedly. "I've never done it before."

At that suggestion, the three guys grinned mischievously.

"Not a bad idea, Mads," Tristan said.

"Please. I am not going anywhere on a snow-covered hill with you three," Paris snorted. "After that little incident yesterday – I don't think so."

"What incident?" Brendan asked.

Paris rolled her eyes. "Pretending you can't ski so you can pick up girls…"

Austin grinned. "That plan was genius!"

"Thank you," Tristan responded.

"But they got shut down," Louise added, laughing.

"_We_," Brenden said, indicating Tristan and himself, "…did not get shut down. _He_ did," he continued pointing to Tristan, but then stopped speaking as his eyes focused on the doorway, "...speak of the devil."

Tristan followed his gaze to Rory and Aleesha who had just entered the restaurant.

Paris grinned as the two girls walked closer to their table. "Aleesha! Rory!" she called.

The two girls looked around and headed over to their table upon spotting Paris.

"Hey," Rory greeted happily until her eyes fell upon Tristan.

"Look, it's dumb and dumber," Aleesha said, looking at Tristan and Brendan, her eyes twinkling in amusement. "How's the skiing coming along?"

Everyone laughed in response.

Brendan mock-pouted. "You're mean."

"Yeah, well," Aleesha stated, absent-mindedly. "Sometimes, you have to be."

Tristan managed to catch Rory's eye and smiled at her. In response, she rolled her eyes and looked away which caused Paris to start snickering and Tristan to send a dirty look in her direction.

After a series of small talk and introductions, for Austin was now the only one out of the loop, Rory and Aleesha left the table to go back to their room.

"Paris, why did we not know that you knew them?" Tristan asked, once the two girls were out of earshot.

Paris shrugged. "Must have slipped my mind..." she said nonchalantly, looking over her menu.

"You expect us to believe that?" Brendan asked. Then realizing their stroke of luck he asked, "…can you get them to come to our party on Friday?"

Paris raised her eyebrows at him.

"Please?" he added.

"Yeah Paris, please!" Tristan joined in.

"You're still not going to give up?" Paris asked, in disbelief. "Even after they called you dumb and dumber?"

Tristan and Brendan looked at each other then back at her. "Do you really expect us to answer that?"

Paris could only shake her head. "Guys!" she muttered, under her breath.

"So are you going to ask them to come?" Tristan pressed again.

"No." she replied bluntly, her eyes not leaving the menu in her hands.

* * *

"Come on! It'll be fun. Well as much fun as a hotel room party filled with stupid teenagers who have nothing better to do than drink and make out, can be."

"Gee, you're really selling the idea to me," Rory said, sarcastically, heading towards the ski hill to teach her morning lesson with Paris beside her.

Paris had managed to find her earlier while she was drinking her morning cup of coffee and for the past ten minutes, had been trying to convince her to come to a party that 'a couple of kids in her class' were throwing.

"I'm trying here! I'm not much of a party person myself, but I figure I should go since I do have to mix with these kids for the next year and a half of my life. And since you're going to start at Chilton, you should go and meet some people," Paris rambled on. "Besides, I don't want to be there all by myself."

Rory sighed. "You're not going to be alone. You know all those people. And don't you have Madeline and Louise?"

Paris laughed bitterly. "_Please_. Those two will be off with some guy in the two seconds it takes to walk through the door."

"Why are you so intent on me coming? Why not ask Aleesha?" Rory asked wondering why Paris was pressing the issue. The girl barely knew her and now she was insisting that they hang out.

"I don't even need to attempt to convince her. I figure she'll faster agree to a party than you will," Paris answered. "And I want you to come as well because I figure you're not the type of person to get plastered just because you feel like it."

Rory raised her eyebrows at her. "What makes you so sure about that?"

Paris snorted. "Would you like me to list all the reasons for you?"

Rory rolled her eyes, stopping as they neared the ski lift. "Right. The 'Mary' thing."

"And keep in mind that if you don't come to this party, I will personally make your life a living hell at school," Paris said, smugly.

Rory's mouth dropped open in protest. "What?"

Paris shrugged. "So are you going to come or what?"

"I don't know...I'll think about it." Rory said sounding defeated.

"Good. I knew you'd see it my way," Paris said triumphantly.

She took leave of Rory and headed back in the direction from which they had come.

"I said I would think about it," Rory called after her then looked around, wondering where Aleesha had disappeared to.

* * *

Rory glanced around at the departing kids after their lesson that day as she packed up her ski equipment. When she was finished, she and Aleesha headed back down to the lodge.

"Hey, I'm surprised our two new students haven't shown up for three days now," Aleesha said, grinning in amusement.

Rory rolled her eyes and shook her head. Those two could disappear from the earth for as long as she lived, for all she cared. Then turning to Aleesha, she asked, "So what do you think about the party Paris was telling me about?"

Aleesha shrugged. "I'm up for it if you are."

Rory stared at her.

"What?" Aleesha asked, indignantly.

"See, this is where you're supposed to say 'No, I don't want to go,' thereby getting me out of going," Rory said.

"But I _do_ want to go," Aleesha laughed. "It's an opportunity to have some fun which you really need to take advantage of."

Rory groaned. "What are the chances of _blondie_ showing up?" she asked after a moment.

Aleesha laughed again. "So, this is what it's about? I knew you had a thing for him!" she said narrowing her eyes playfully.

Rory glared at her. "More like, what are the chances of me not running into him if I go to that stupid party?"

"Since it's a Chilton thing, you'll most likely see them. From the impression I got of him and his friend, they're probably the ones throwing it" Aleesha replied. "And they'll probably show up 'fashionably late' to their own party."

"Or obnoxiously late," Rory grumbled. "That kid is so incredibly annoying."

"Do you want to know what I think?" Aleesha asked. "I think that we should go to this thing. You should forget about Tristan and just ignore him because you spend way too much time obsessing about how much you cannot stand him. And you should just enjoy yourself and meet some new people."

Rory sighed. Aleesha did have a point. She did spend way too much time thinking about Tristan DuGrey. Anyone who did not know any better would think that she liked him. It was unhealthy. Paris also had a point. She should make an effort to socialize with these Chilton kids unless she wanted to spend the remainder of her high school career in severe loser-loner-ville.

"Fine, I'll go," she finally said grudgingly, hoping against hope she would not regret her decision.

* * *

"I cannot believe I agreed to this," Rory muttered, staring at her reflection in the mirror as she heard a knock on Aleesha's room door.

"What can I say? You're a regular party girl deep down," Aleesha said, heading over to answer the door.

She opened it revealing Paris, Madeline and Louise standing there, the latter two being dressed to the nines. Paris simply looked annoyed.

"I see you talked some sense into her," Paris said, as she pushed into the room.

"Damn Gilmore, you are working it," Louise whistled as she followed Paris inside.

"Ha, I told you!" Aleesha exclaimed, excitedly.

Rory rolled her eyes. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Can we go please?"

"Touchy, touchy," Aleesha mumbled, as they grabbed their bags and headed out.

A short elevator ride later, they entered the 'luxury suite' hallway of the hotel and music could be heard blasting down the hall. A few people were milling around outside.

"They certainly move fast," Rory said, wrinkling her nose at a few couples who were all over each other.

"Considering it started an hour ago, this is nothing," Paris said. "Half of them are probably beyond drunk by now."

"Aren't people going to complain about the music?" Rory asked.

Paris shrugged. "Our class is on the majority of this floor, so it doesn't matter."

"…so exactly how hot are these guys that go to your school?" Aleesha was asking Louise and Madeline.

Behind them, Paris and Rory shook their heads.

"Are we going to have to deal with this all night?"

Paris shrugged. "I suppose we could always ditch them. Granted, Madeline and Louise will probably drag her off as soon as they get in there so they'll do the ditching for us."

She stopped when the reached the entrance to the room. True to her word, Madeline and Louise grabbed Aleesha before she could say a word and hauled her into the room, proceeding to introduce her to everyone they came in contact with.

She turned to Rory. "Okay, some words of advice before you go in, although you probably know this already. Don't drink anything anyone gives you, drink stuff that's only in cans or bottles that can't be sealed again and don't put your drink down and then go back for it unless you want to end up puking your brains out tomorrow morning."

Rory looked at her, an amused smile on her face. "Geez, anyone would think these Chilton kids are out to get us."

Paris gave her a rather snippy look as she stomped inside.

"Paris! Didn't think you'd show," a guy called out to her.

"Shut up Walker," she snapped, as Rory followed her in amusement, bracing herself for her first ever Chilton party.

* * *

This was a mistake. A big mistake.

Rory sat herself down on an empty couch playing with the hem of her shirt - all alone. Aleesha was off with Madeline and Louise - who knew where - and someone had dragged a protesting Paris off somewhere else. She had promised she would be back in ten minutes - that was over half an hour ago.

During that time, Rory had wandered around aimlessly and upon recognizing that Austin guy (and hoping that she wouldn't come into the vicinity of a certain blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy), talked to him and a few other people he introduced her too.

Now she was alone and bored out of her mind. She had half a mind to get up and leave when she felt the presence of someone beside her.

Turning her head, she tried her hardest to resist the urge to roll her eyes and groan.

Maybe this _was_ her cue to get up and leave.

"Mary," Tristan said simply, in greeting.

Urge, shmurge. Rory groaned.

"It's Rory." she grumbled.

Tristan shrugged and flashed a grin. "So what's a pretty girl like you doing here sitting all by yourself?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "Staying away from evil guys like you."

Tristan clutched a hand to his chest in mock astonishment. "Evil? Me?" he questioned. "I'm shocked you would say such a thing."

Rory huffed. "I am so not in the mood to deal with this right now."

She stood up but before she could move any further, she felt him grab her hand and pull her back down. Completely caught off guard and much unprepared for what happened, she lost her balance and found herself falling directly on top of him.

For a split second their eyes locked but before Rory could completely register exactly what that meant and what happened, she noticed that that stupid smirk of his was back in place.

"Didn't know you wanted me that bad, Gilmore" he teased.

Rory scrambled off of him as quickly as she could, managing to turn bright red in the process. She wasn't in control. She had to regain the control and she only knew one way how.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, angrily.

How did he know her last name, by the way?

Tristan merely shrugged. "Trying to get you to stay."

"Well don't! And it's not working," Rory snapped, abruptly getting up. "And if you even think of grabbing my hand one more time to pull me back down, I swear I will hurt you."

She turned and stomped off intent on leaving the party without a backwards glance.

If she had looked back though, she would have seen Tristan gazing after her with an amused, yet contemplative smile on his face.

* * *

After searching in vain for either Paris or Aleesha (and have half-drunk Chilton guys hit on her), Rory finally gave up and decided to leave the party. She was surprised the teachers had not turned up to break up the "festivities", considering the racket they were making.

Not in the mood to stay in her room, she opted for going for a walk after she grabbed her jacket and headed out into the chilly night air.

Another round of snow had begun to fall and Rory crunched through it, heading down a familiar path, her breath coming out in puffs of smoke.

All too soon she was wishing that she had changed her shoes upon getting her jacket, since her heeled boots were not exactly made for nighttime strolls in three-foot deep snow, but rather for looking exceptionally stylish when paired with her outfit.

Not really paying attention to where she was going, her feet led her in the direction of the frozen pond, which was sometimes used as a skating rink although, few people knew about it.

Rory especially liked it at night when it was lit up by a few lights and the sprinkling of stars in the night sky.

Upon reaching the seemingly deserted pond, her ears picked up the sound of someone whistling. Turning in the direction of the whistling, a sinking feeling fell in the pit of her stomach as her eyes came to rest on a pair of annoyingly familiar blue ones.

Rory sighed. Was he stalking her?

"Lovely night isn't it?" Tristan commented, smirk in place and staring up at the night sky.

Rory narrowed her eyes although, try as she might, she couldn't help but _not _ignore him.

"Are you following me?" she accused, glaring at him.

The smirk grew even bigger. Rory felt like slapping him.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was here first. So technically, _I'm_ not following _you,_" he replied, almost lazily. Then his eyes twinkled mischievously. "If anything, I would say _you_ were following _me_."

Rory glared at him. "As if!" she scoffed.

Tristan grinned. "You don't have to deny it any longer, Mary. You know you think I'm irresistible."

"In whatever world you're living in," she muttered, rolling her eyes.

"No girl can resist me," he continued, completely unfazed.

"So what am I? A guy?" she deadpanned.

He grinned again. "That would be scary, seeing as how I hit on you," then turning to her he added, "…are you going to stand there, or sit down?"

Rory snorted. "I'd rather stand and be as far away from you as possible."

The smirk returned. "So why are you still here? Talking to me no less?"

Rory opened her mouth to retaliate but stopped. He had a point. Stupid boy.

She rolled her eyes. "You know, I really don't know why."

"I do. You find me incredibly fascinating," he answered, "...and irresistible," he added as an afterthought.

"I really don't." she said crossing her arms across her chest indignantly.

"Denial is not just a river in Egypt my dear." he said in a singsong voice.

Rory groaned. Did this kid ever stop? "That phrase is so old. And so overused," she grumbled.

He didn't answer, but continued his whistling.

After a moment, Rory realized that she was beginning to get cold by simply standing there. Against her better judgment, she found herself wandering over to the bench and sitting down beside him but as far away as she could possibly get from him.

"Don't even open your mouth," she warned him when he began to grin at her.

He shrugged. "I wasn't going to say anything," he said, innocently.

Like there was anything innocent about him, Rory reminded herself.

A gust of wind blew and Rory shivered.

"You cold?" Tristan asked sincerely.

"No!" Rory snapped. She had a feeling he would make some stupid comment about warming her up.

He smirked at her reaction but wisely kept his mouth shut.

"So why aren't you partying it up, upstairs?" Rory asked, finally breaking the silence that had settled over them.

Tristan shrugged. "I got kind of bored since the only reason I was there in the first place, ended up leaving the party and blew me off." he said giving her a pointed look.

"I wonder why," Rory said, dryly.

"It's okay though, because she's talking to me right now." he said smiling widely.

"Only because she has nothing better to do," Rory muttered.

Tristan shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips. "You really know how to make a guy feel good don't you?"

Rory shrugged. "I try," she answered, as they lapsed into silence.

* * *

AN: Hey everyone, thank you so much for the reviews for the previous chapters! I'm glad people are enjoying it so far.


	4. Chapter Four

**Title:** Love to Hate You

**Author:** Lannah

**Summary:** Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.

**Pairing:** R/T.

**Disclaimer: **I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Gilmore Girls. I have about $2 to my name so if anyone wants to sue me, they won't be getting a whole lot.

* * *

"So you actually talked to him without killing him?" Aleesha asked Rory the next day after their ski lesson. "That's a miracle." 

Rory shrugged. "It wasn't really talking. It was more like me shooting down everything he said."

Aleesha took a sip of her drink, a small smile on her face.

Rory looked at her suspiciously. "What are you smiling about?"

Aleesha shrugged. "Nothing," but the smile remained on her face. "So, what'd you do at the party anyway?"

Rory narrowed her eyes at her.

Aleesha threw up her hands in surrender. "I said I was sorry!"

"I don't care. You're the one who made me go in the first place."

"I'm sorry. They just dragged me off and I did look for you but I didn't know where you were..."

Rory stuck her tongue out at her. "I should yell at Paris too," she grumbled.

At that moment, a commotion at the door caused them to look up.

"Right on cue," Aleesha said, grinning as Paris walked in (or rather, stomped in), obviously annoyed with Tristan and Brendan who were behind her (and from the looks of it, completely bothering her). They were followed by Austin, Madeline and Louise.

Rory buried her head behind an advertisement on the table about a new type of latte when she saw Tristan.

"Hide me," she moaned.

"Too late," Aleesha said, leaning back in her chair obviously enjoying Rory's discomfort. "They've spotted us - including Tristan - and they're coming over."

Rory groaned. "I don't want to talk to him," she whined.

"Talk to whom?"

Rory let out an 'hmph' and turned around. "You," she answered.

Tristan shrugged and sat down beside her. "Why not, Mary? I'm an entertaining person."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Yeah, if by entertaining you mean annoying," she mumbled under her breath.

Aleesha shot her a "be nice" look.

"Oh shut up, DuGrey," Paris snapped, flopping down on an empty chair. The rest of them followed suit.

"Paris is in a bad mood," Brendan said in a sing-song voice, taking the seat beside Aleesha. He flashed her a grin.

"It's such a surprise too," Tristan added, his eyes twinkling mischievously as he eyed the glowering Paris. "She's rarely ever like this."

"I know," Brendan agreed. "She's usually so perky."

"Singing..." Tristan started.

"Dancing..." Brendan continued.

"Picking flowers-"

Tristan's comment was punctuated by one of Rory's fries hitting his head. He rubbed his forehead, smirking at a fuming Paris, while the rest of them broke out into fits of laughter.

"Why am I the only one getting fries thrown at him?" Tristan complained.

"'Because you're closer," Paris answered.

"_And_ everyone knows she likes me more than you," Brendan added and then stopped when he noticed Paris's narrowed eyes directed at him.

"Guys leave her alone. Unless you plan on having a funeral in the next five minutes," Austin cut in, grinning.

"I'd like one funeral soon," Rory muttered, causing Madeline, Louise, and Austin to start snickering all over again.

"So what are you ladies doing today?" Austin asked quickly, before Tristan could retort.

Aleesha shrugged. "We were trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the afternoon."

"Well, we were planning on going tubing," Brendan said. "Want to come?"

"Um..." Aleesha started to say.

Rory managed to catch her eyes and threw a look at Tristan and then back at her.

Aleesha grinned. "Sure," she agreed, as Rory's mouth dropped open.

Immediately, she began thinking up every possible excuse available in order to get herself out of going anywhere where a certain Tristan DuGrey would be present. Unfortunately for her, her excuses did not work as well as she had hoped for she found herself at the top of a hill, tube in hand a short while later.

* * *

"I'm so tired," Madeline groaned, later that evening after their tubing session. 

Rory nodded in agreement. She had spent the majority of the afternoon trying to avoid Tristan who seemed to know exactly what she was doing and went out of his way to annoy the living daylights out of her. Needless to say, that was tiring in itself.

They had decided to crash in Paris, Louise and Madeline's shared hotel room and have a movie night that evening after they got back.

"Madeline, you sat on a tire-thing and slid down a hill a bunch of times," Paris snapped. "What's so tiring about that?"

Rory watched the two of them in amusement. Paris was a handful and she wondered how girly-girls like Madeline and Louise had become such good friends with her.

"Okay," Aleesha said, walking into the room with Louise in tow. They were both carrying armloads of junk food. "We have chips, cookies, brownies-"

"I call the brownies," Rory interrupted.

"-the sodas are in the fridge so if you want any, get it yourself because I'm not walking back in there and the pizza is on its way upstairs," Aleesha finished.

"Which movie are we watching first?" Louise asked.

"Miss Congeniality," Madeline answered happily.

"Oohh...chick flick," Aleesha said. "I like."

Just then the doorbell rang.

"I've got it," Rory said getting up and heading to the door. She paid for the pizza that had arrived and then carried it into the living room as Paris started the movie.

"I love this movie," Madeline gushed, grabbing a slice of pizza.

"Ror, why are you staring at your pizza?" Aleesha asked.

Rory looked up. She was in fact staring at it, trying to remember whether or not she had brought her scarf back from the hill.

"I think I left my scarf back on the hill..." she said.

Paris raised her eyebrows. "And staring at the pizza is going to bring it back, how?"

Rory ignored her and got up. "I'm going to go look for it."

"It's a scarf...who cares," Aleesha said, focusing her attention back on the television which was now showing the opening credits to the movie.

"It's my favourite scarf. I'm going to see if it's still there."

As Rory stepped outside, she overheard Paris asking, "She has a favourite _scarf_?" only to have Aleesha, Madeline and Louise all 'shush' her at once.

A few minutes later, Rory headed up towards the hill they were previously occupying, looking all around her. Finally, she spotted a blue bundle among the sea of endless white.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, quickly grabbing the scarf currently lying on the snow.

As she proceeded to head back to the hotel, she chose a different route from the one she had previously taken. She headed along the path, which led to the bigger hills used by the more advanced skiers and snowboarders.

Her attention was then caught by a lone figure swerving in and out, obviously snowboarding down the hill. Usually there was no one about these hills at this time of the night, so she was surprised to see someone there.

From the looks of it, whoever it was, was quite good.

_Really good_, she mused as she watched the person's (who was now speeding down the hill) form.

As the person came to a stop at the bottom of the hill and took off his snow goggles, Rory immediately realized who it was.

Her lips curled up into a wry smile as she walked over to him.

"Wow, you learn quickly," she commented.

Tristan whipped around and grinned almost sheepishly when he saw her.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, innocently.

As if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Well," Rory elaborated, "one day you can't ski even if your life depended on it and now you're a pro snowboarder. You learn quickly."

Tristan grinned. "Well, I had a good teacher."

If Rory hadn't already decided she would be immune to his charm, she would have probably blushed at his comment. She grudgingly let herself admit though that he was good with the one-liners.

"I didn't teach you to snowboard," she pointed out.

Tristan shrugged. "Skiing, boarding. Same difference."

"Why are you here at this time of the night, anyway?" Rory asked, changing the subject.

He shrugged again. "Felt like it. What about you?"

Rory held up her scarf. "I came to get this. I left it here earlier."

Silence filled the air. A light breeze had begun to blow, sending a shiver down her back and Rory realized she had forgotten her jacket. Smart. She was lucky it wasn't freezing outside or else she would probably spend the rest of her vacation nursing frostbite.

"I thought you hated my guts," Tristan said, suddenly.

"What?" Rory's head snapped up.

"Well, you've actually had a decent conversation with me - twice - out of your own free will. I thought you couldn't stand me."

Rory sighed and chose her words carefully before she answered him. "I don't _hate_ you. I don't like you...but I don't hate you. And you're right...I can't stand you, but for some reason, you're very hard to ignore."

Another grin overtook his features.

"And keep in mind we didn't exactly have a _conversation_. We've exchanged a couple of sentences," Rory added, noticing this.

He smirked. "Whatever you say."

Rory fought the urge to roll her eyes. No matter how decent he could be at times (and she stressed 'at times'), that smirk would always manage to find itself back on his face and ruin everything.

Although, the smirk was kind of cute at times.

'_Whoa…back up Gilmore,'_ she thought to herself. _'That thought did not just come from your head.'_

"So, if I were to ask you out, would you say yes?" Tristan asked.

"Ha...no," Rory answered.

"Why not?"

"Because I happen to know for a fact that you don't really like me and you look like one of those guys who probably has a different girlfriend every week," Rory replied, matter-of-factly. "I'm not into that."

"That's awfully judgmental, wouldn't you say?" he asked. "What makes you think that?"

There was an extremely annoying twinkle in his eyes, which made her feel as if he knew something she didn't. And she felt like smacking that smug smile off of his face. She knew there was a reason why she couldn't stand him.

Ignoring his question, she said, "If you're looking for a reason as to why I can't stand you, there was one right there."

She turned to leave. "I'm cold. I'm going inside."

She walked away leaving him standing there. Just before she was out of earshot, he shouted, "Bye Mary!"

* * *

Tristan sat idly flipping through the channels on the television set. Absolutely nothing worth watching was on. 

He sighed. Normally, he would have been out with his 'groupies' (as Paris so kindly chose to call the many girls he surrounded himself with), but he wasn't in the mood.

The people he did feel like hanging out with though were no where around. Austin was annoying Paris somewhere and Brenden had managed to corner Aleesha (who was surprisingly alone for once, without the company of Rory or anyone else) and had succeeded in dragging her off somewhere around the resort as well.

Rory.

Tristan sighed again. For some reason, unbeknownst to him (well, he really did know the reason, but didn't want to admit it), he couldn't seem to get her out of his head. Their conversation on the hill the other night, kept floating back to him.

Since then, he had hardly seen her because of the many silly class activities they had to do (being a class trip and all as Mr. Medina so kindly pointed out to them). When he did see her, he always managed to mess everything up by saying something stupid and having her call him an "arrogant jackass" (or something along those lines) and she would stalk off.

Tristan groaned.

Whoever thought, Tristan DuGrey - player extraordinaire - would be majorly crushing on some girl who wouldn't give him the time of day.

But she wasn't just some girl, he reminded himself.

He'd come to realize that soon after his efforts of trying to 'pick her up' had proved futile. She was the first girl that turned him down and the first girl he had started to really like. He had only known her a short while but he liked what he saw and heard. She was smart, funny and gorgeous. And her smile could light up the room even though it was rarely ever directed at him. Or more like _never_ directed towards him.

Tristan felt like banging his head against the wall. He knew something was wrong with him when he was resorting to stupid clichés to describe her smile.

It's not like she wanted anything to do with him anyway. She hated his guts.

Correction, she did not hate him.

Tristan felt his spirits soar at that thought but they soon dropped once more as he remembered something else. Sure she didn't hate him, but she didn't like him very much, either.

He groaned and slumped back against the pillows on the couch.

"What's wrong with you?"

Tristan turned to see Brenden walking in the door looking extremely pleased about something.

"Nothing," Tristan mumbled.

Brenden grinned. "DuGrey, I'm surprised. You, of all people are sitting here moping over a girl."

Tristan glared at him. He was not moping. Brenden simply grinned again and sank onto the couch beside Tristan and started whistling.

Tristan looked at him closely. "What are you so happy about?" he asked.

Brenden grinned. "I, my friend, have a date tonight."

Tristan raised his eyebrows. "Aleesha agreed to go out with you?"

"Yep."

"Of her own free will?"

"Uh huh."

"You didn't drug her or get her drunk or something?"

Brenden glared at him.

Tristan laughed. "Just checking."

"I was surprised myself," Brenden said.

Tristan smiled at his friend. "Well, I'm glad for you."

Silence ensued for a while.

"I'm sure Gilmore will come around," Brenden said, breaking the silence. "All you have to do is work that infamous DuGrey charm on her."

Tristan let out a chuckle. "In case you haven't noticed, she's completely immune to the charm."

Brenden didn't say anything but he had a thoughtful - and Tristan used that term loosely - expression on his face. Then a slow smile spread across his face.

"It just might work..." he said, almost to himself.

Tristan knew that look. It was the look the two of them developed when they had one of their "brilliant" ideas. Usually, the ideas never turned out to be all that brilliant. Well, Brenden's ideas anyway. Or so he liked to think.

"What might work?" Tristan asked, warily.

"Do what you do best," Brenden said, proudly.

"Piss her off?"

"Exactly."

"And how will that help me, pray tell?"

"Well," Brenden elaborated, "…you get her all riled up and in the heat of the argument…" he grinned suggestively.

Tristan shook his head in amusement. "You're an idiot."

* * *

Aimless wandering. Tristan had taken to doing that for the past hour. 

Brenden's words echoed in Tristan's head. Piss her off. That would make her hate him even more for sure. Sometimes, he wondered about that boy.

Nearing the skating rink, he was surprised to see that it was deserted despite the time of day. His eyes fell on a figure sitting on the bench staring up at the sky as snowflakes fell around her.

Coincidence?

He walked up beside her. "Doesn't your neck hurt?"

She jumped. Then she shrugged and looked down at her hands as he took a seat beside her.

"Soo...I heard that Brenden managed to get Aleesha to go out with him tonight." He spoke the first thing that came to mind.

Rory stiffened. "Yes," she answered.

Somehow, she didn't sound too happy about that.

"Well, I mean...it's good. He likes her..." Tristan's voice trailed off as Rory narrowed her eyes at him.

Somehow, that was obviously the wrong thing to say.

"How can he like her? He's only known her for a week and three days. You can't _like_ someone in that amount of time," she snapped.

_Yeah you can._

Tristan laughed a little. "Well, we're not talking about getting married or anything like that. It's just a date. And isn't that how you usually end up liking someone you don't really know? You meet them, go out, get to know each other..."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Typical guy thing to say," she grumbled.

Tristan was tempted to ask 'How is that a typical guy thing to say' but decided against it. She looked like she was ready to breathe fire. For what though, he didn't really know.

"Why do you have to overanalyze everything so much?"

A split second too late, he realized his mistake. Well, he'd started so there was no use shutting up when she answered.

"Excuse me? I do not overanalyze everything."

"Well, I meant the date thing...and the thing with them not knowing each other very well...you get very worked up about little things you know that?"

Whoops. Fire breathing Rory had arrived.

"I do not," she hissed. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know me."

"You're doing it now," he pointed out.

Rory glared at him. "You are so annoying."

"One of my many talents," Tristan smirked.

"And so infuriating...I really don't like you," she continued.

"So you've told me."

There was silence after that comment. She didn't say anything but took to glaring at the snow. He had a sneaking suspicion that the snow was supposed to be him.

Well, he'd started. He might as well finish.

"They're just taking a chance...Brenden and Aleesha," Tristan started, then added, "something you need to do once in a while."

"What?" Rory's head snapped up.

Tristan merely shrugged.

Now the glare was directed full force at him.

"What are you talking about?" she snapped. "I take chances. Just this morning, I decided to have only two cups of coffee as opposed to three. So ha."

Tristan felt a smile twitching at the corners of his lips.

She seemed to notice the look on his face because she narrowed her eyes at him again. "Shut up."

Tristan grinned mischievously. "Well, that's spontaneity if I ever heard of it."

If looks could kill, he would have been dead in zero point one milliseconds.

"You know," she started up, "you think you're so great. You walk around like you own the world with people falling all over you like you're some kind of God or something. Well, I'll have you know-"

What she would have him know, he never found out. For during her little rant, he had developed the overwhelming urge to kiss her.

And throwing caution to the winds, he did, cutting off her tirade.

There was also the little fact that she looked really hot when she was pissed off.

At first, he could tell that she was shocked when she didn't respond, but soon after, she kissed him back and Tristan was loving every second of it.

But, just as he was getting into the kiss, he felt two hands roughly push him away. Gasping for air, and partly from what he'd just done, he looked at her expectantly, hoping for her to say something. Preferably, something along the lines of "I love you Tristan, I wanna marry you." Or something like that.

Instead, her mouth dropped open as she gaped at him in shock.

"Rory...?" he questioned uncertainly.

She was looking everywhere but at him. "I...I have to go," she managed to mumble.

And he watched the falling snow cover her footsteps as she practically ran away from him.

Tristan slumped back against the bench, ignoring the cold that had suddenly washed over him.

"That definitely did not work."

* * *

AN: Sorry for the long time between updates, everyone. I kind of forgot that I was supposed to be revising the whole story, hehe :) 


	5. Chapter Five

**Title:** Love to Hate You

**Author:** Lannah

**Summary:** Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.

**Pairing:** R/T.

**Disclaimer: **I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Gilmore Girls. I have about $2 to my name so if anyone wants to sue me, they won't be getting a whole lot.

* * *

"They're leaving today." 

Rory shrugged at Aleesha's comment.

A small smile crossed Aleesha's face. "You're not even going to say bye?"

"I already said goodbye to Paris and them," Rory answered shortly.

Aleesha smiled again. "You're not going say goodbye to him?"

Rory inhaled deeply and gave Aleesha a Look. "I don't know who you're talking about."

"You know," Aleesha mused, "...one would think that you are way more affected by what happened than you let on. One might even think that you like him."

Rory narrowed her eyes at her. "I do not like him. And that stupid...thing...meant nothing."

Aleesha let a small smile escape. "Ah, so you _do_ know who I'm talking about."

Rory rolled her eyes.

"Ror, honestly, if what happened didn't mean anything then you shouldn't worry too much about it," Aleesha said. "Just let it go."

Rory didn't reply. Aleesha was right. She shouldn't be sitting around feeling depressed over something that did not mean anything to her in the first place. Because that would imply that she did feel something - even a miniscule something - for him. And that was just not acceptable.

She could not and would not fall for Tristan DuGrey.

* * *

A few hours later, Rory waited impatiently for Aleesha who was talking to Brendan before the Chilton group left. She was doing her best to avoid a certain someone, whom she had not yet seen but did not really want to see anytime in the near future…or ever, for that matter. 

She groaned as Brenden beckoned her over to them just as Austin and Paris appeared.

"Gilmore!" He called cheerfully, as she approached. "What, you don't like us anymore? You're not even going to say goodbye? I'm hurt."

Rory managed a smile. "Bye," she mumbled and gave him a hug.

" I know you're sad to see me go but you'll see us soon," he grinned at her.

"I guess," Rory answered.

It was the 'everyone else' part she was dreading. Particularly, a 'someone else.'

Everyone soon started chatting about life at Chilton. Although she was curious about the school, Rory did not want to linger any longer than she absolutely had to. She wanted to avoid the moment when a certain someone was bound to show up.

In her haste to get away, she managed to crash into someone who had come up behind her. Her eyes flew up to meet those eyes that had become so familiar to her in the past week.

Perfect.

She fidgeted nervously under his intense gaze and upon noticing the silence that had overcome the group as she and Tristan had walked into each other, she managed an as blank and unreadable expression as possible.

"Mary," he said simply.

She narrowed her eyes. Why had she been obsessing so much over the incident? Obviously it meant nothing to him. It was just his stupid player ways. He wasn't really interested in her. And she knew that. She had known it from the very beginning.

So why was it bothering her so much?

In that split second, she made up her mind. She did not care. She cared more about the fact that she actually bothered to give him the time of day in the first place.

"DuGrey," she answered shortly and stalked off.

* * *

"I'm an idiot," Tristan muttered as paced around the airport terminal. 

"I could have told you that," Brendan said, watching his friend in amusement.

"I really am an idiot."

Brendan shrugged. "Yeah well, Paris always has a stick shoved up her ass but what can you do? Ouch!"

Brendan rubbed his head where Paris had smacked him. "I was joking!"

Tristan ignored the two, continuing with his ranting. "I screwed everything up. I should have just taken it slow."

"Tristan DuGrey? Taking it slow?" Louise asked. "That'll be the day."

Tristan shot her an annoyed look. "I should have waited until I got her to like me-"

"In order for her to like you, you have to get her to stand you first," Brendan interrupted him.

Tristan gave him an exasperated look as well. "You're not helping," then added, "...I should go talk to her."

"How?" Paris asked. "We have to board soon. Are you planning on driving all the way back to the resort, talk to Rory, then drive back here in a span of two minutes?"

"Paris, my dear, you are much too sarcastic for your own good," Brendan commented.

Paris ignored him. "You'll see her at school."

Tristan's eyes lit up at that. "True..."

"...she'll probably ignore you but you'll still see her at school," Paris added.

Tristan sighed. "Paris, please promise me you'll never decide to become a therapist."

* * *

"Home sweet home," Lorelai sang out as she opened the front door of their house. "There are no hot skier or snowboarder boys here but I can promise you an unhealthy amount of junk food." 

At the mention of "skier or snowboarder guys," Rory sighed. Forgetting was a hard thing to do.

"Can we not mention skier or snowboarder guys please?"

Lorelai's ears perked up. "Ooh…I sense drama. Is there something Mini-me has conveniently forgotten to tell me? Who's the boy?"

"It was nothing. I don't really feel like talking about it."

Lorelai regarded her closely for a moment but chose to drop the subject. "Want some coffee?"

Rory grinned. "Yes."

Lorelai laughed and headed towards the kitchen. "You know you missed a lot of entertainment."

"Like what?"

"Well, Luke and Taylor were at it again…something about Taylor's property and Luke couldn't walk there…and then Kirk decided to set up a lemonade stand right outside of Luke's...I really don't know why…"

* * *

"Do you have everything?" 

Rory nodded, staring out the jeep window.

"Well, this is it..."

Rory nodded again.

"Nervous?"

"A little."

"Think you'll see him?"

"It doesn't matter. I told you. I don't like him."

Lorelai nodded. "Your headmaster's kind of a psycho."

Rory laughed. "Maybe you should not have worn shorts to the interview."

"I had no clean clothes."

Rory smiled. "I should go. I'd make a great impression by being late on my first day."

She grabbed her backpack and got out of the car. "I'll see you at home," she said, looking back at Lorelai.

"Good luck!" Lorelai called after her.

Rory nervously took in her surroundings as she walked through the parking lot towards Chilton's entrance. Her eyes focused on a particularly large group of students milling around a group of fancy cars. But then again, the entire Chilton parking lot looked like a showcase for Lexus, BMW and Mercedes.

Rory rolled her eyes. How rich could these kids get?

She stopped for a moment, her gaze focusing on a sleek, black Mercedes Benz that had just pulled into the parking lot. She watched as the car came to stop and a rather familiar, messy head of blonde hair appeared. Immediately, he was enveloped by the crowd she was previously looking at.

Rory promptly turned away, scowling, as she made her way into the building and towards her assigned locker. She dropped her backpack onto the floor, spun the combination and tried to open the locker.

The door wouldn't budge.

She tried again.

Nothing.

Rory groaned. "This is not happening..."

"Gilmore! You look like you're ready to kill someone."

Rory spun around to see Brendan grinning at her, a very pretty girl and a guy standing with him.

Rory's face broke into a smile. "Brendan, hey!" she exclaimed as he gave her a hug.

"Some of the lockers have to be opened like this - here," he demonstrated.

"Thanks," she said, gratefully.

"So how have you been?" he asked.

"Pretty good," Rory answered, beginning to put her things away. "This week was kind of crazy though. You know, what with getting all of my stuff together."

"Yeah-" Brendan was interrupted by the guy clearing his throat.

"Oh right..." Brendan mumbled. "Rory, this is Justin, Justin, Rory."

Rory smiled. "Hi."

Justin grinned at her. "Brendan's very rude, in case you hadn't noticed."

Brendan rolled his eyes then pointed out the girl. "This is Summer."

The girl gave Rory an appraising look. "Hey," she answered, boredom clearly evident in her voice.

Rory raised her eyebrows but didn't reply.

Summer flipped her hair over her shoulders. "I'm going to find Tristan. He should be here by now. You coming Justin?"

At the mention of Tristan's name, a frown took its place on Rory's face.

"So, what do you have first period?" Brendan asked, turning back to Rory.

"Umm...Calculus," she said, showing him her schedule.

"Ah, the party subject," he answered, grinning.

"Oh yeah. Big party."

"I have English Lit and Bio with you," Brendan said.

"That's good. At least I'll know someone…" Rory answered.

The rest of her sentence was cut short by the sound of another voice.

"Will you two hurry up? I don't want to be late," a voice snapped.

Rory couldn't help but smile as she turned and saw Paris, Madeline and Louise a few lockers down from hers.

"Paris!" Brendan called out, earning a few odd looks from passing students.

She turned around and glared at him. "Go away."

Rory laughed as Brendan faked a pout.

"Rory!" Madeline squealed and gave her a hug.

After a series of small talk, Paris looked at her watch and then at Rory. "What do you have first?"

"Calculus," Rory answered.

"Well, you're with us then. Let's go," Paris said and walked away.

Rory shrugged an amused smile forming across her face. Waving goodbye to Brendan, she followed Paris down the hallway and into the classroom, Madeline and Louise in tow.

Just as Rory took a seat beside Paris, the bell rang and the teacher called the class to order.

"Alright everyone, you are in Grade 12 Calculus…just to make sure everyone's in the right room."

He glanced around. "Good, no one left."

A few people laughed in response.

The teacher continued. "For those of you who don't know, my name is Mr. Roberts-" he was interrupted as the door swung open and the last person in the world that Rory wanted to see, sauntered in.

"Mr. DuGrey, how nice of you to join us," Mr. Roberts commented dryly.

Tristan flashed that trademark grin of his. Rory could practically feel the girls swooning in the room.

She rolled her eyes as he answered, "Nice to see you too Mr. Rob. I hope you had a lovely break."

Mr. Roberts rolled his eyes and pointed to an empty seat. "Sit."

Unfortunately for Rory, that empty seat just happened to be directly beside her.

A tell-tale smirk crossed his features as Tristan caught her eyes, sliding into the seat beside her.

"Mary, Mary, Mary. What a coincidence."

Rory stifled the urge to throw her Calculus textbook at his head and instead settled for groaning.

This was going to be one very long school term.

* * *

AN: Sorry for the lack of updates. On top of regular schoolwork, I'm taking a prep course to write the medical school entrance exam…not fun I tell you. And the fact that I'm the worst procrastinator in the world does not help matters when everything begins to pile up. 

Anyway, I haven't really changed much…just fixed spelling mistakes and such. If I missed anything, I apologize. Hope everyone still likes it J


	6. Chapter Six

Title: Love to Hate You

Author: lannah

Summary: Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.

Pairing: R/T. What else?

* * *

"That is it for today," Rory's calculus teacher said wrapping up the day's lesson as the bell signaling the end of the period rang. "Have the problems for chapter one done and chapter two read for next class." 

He had barely finished the last sentence before Rory shot out of her seat almost knocking her books off the table.

It was not so much the slow, painful torture calculus was undoubtedly going to be that caused her intense need for escape from the confined spaces of the classroom. It was more so the her intense need for escape from a certain boy beside her who continually kept staring at her throughout the duration of the lesson.

He had successfully managed to make her uncomfortable, completely lost in the lesson for she found herself having much trouble paying attention and also completely embarrassed in the space of one hour. For the calculus teacher had also noticed Tristan's unnatural amount of staring and had decided to make a comment about it.

Her cheeks still flamed in embarrassment from the thought.

Rory was halfway down the hallway before she realized someone was calling out her name.

"Gilmore, you want to slow down?" an annoyed Paris huffed as she caught up with Rory.

Rory slowed her pace. Barely.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"What is with the disappearing act?" Paris asked, slinging her backpack over her shoulders.

Rory shot a look over her shoulder back at the math room. Tristan was talking to that Summer girl she had met (sort of) earlier that morning.

"Nothing," she answered, quickly turning back to Paris.

Paris looked at her closely for a moment then looked back at the math room. A flicker of a smile overtook her features.

"Nothing?" Paris questioned.

"Nothing," Rory answered, firmly.

Paris shrugged. "Well, I have to be up on the third floor right now. Meet us at lunch," she said and walked away.

It was only after Paris left that Rory realized she had no idea how to get to her English Lit classroom.

Letting out a sigh, she started walking up the hallway only to hear a voice calling out her name again.

It was quite depressing really, how she had come to view "Mary" as her name.

Attempting to ignore the voice, she sped up her walking. She did not manage to get anywhere very fast and far though because for one, she had no athletic ability whatsoever so her speed walking was more akin to a normal person's walking speed; second, she still had no idea where she was going.

"Are you avoiding me?" Tristan asked when he had caught up to her.

Rory rolled her eyes. "No, I just enjoy speed-walking."

Tristan grinned. "You call that speed walking?"

He threw up his hands in mock protest as Rory shot him the deadliest glare she could manage.

It did not matter if what he said was true. It was simply the fact that _he_ said it which bugged her.

"You know Mary, you're not very nice sometimes," he continued.

"And you know DuGrey, you just don't get the hint sometimes," Rory shot back. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to class."

She began to walk away but was immediately stopped as Tristan grabbed her hand and pulled her back to him.

"We need to talk," Tristan said, simply.

He was obviously very stupid and very dense if he did realize that she did not want to talk to him.

"Talk about what?" she asked deciding to play dumb.

Why was he rolling his eyes? There was only one stupid and dense one between the two of them and it was not her.

"Cut the crap Gilmore. You know what I'm talking about."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Tristan gazed at her for a few seconds without speaking.

Shifting uncomfortably under his gaze, Rory let her eyes wander to everything in their environment aside from his face.

"Do you want me to say it out loud for these nice people to hear?" he asked innocently, indicating the few people that were still milling around the hallway.

Rory narrowed her eyes at him. "Look, can we just forget about what happened?"

Tristan blinked. "Forget what happened?"

"Yes. It was an accident. It meant nothing," Rory stated firmly. "Actually, you're the one who kissed me so I really had nothing to do with it."

"Which explains why you kissed me back, right?"

Oh how she wanted to smack that stupid, irritating smirk off of his face right that instant.

"It was an accident. It just happened. I was really cold and suffering from a temporary brain freeze at that moment," Rory said. "I mean…obviously I was not in my right mind when I kissed you because really, I would never do that willingly…"

Her voice trailed off as Tristan's features hardened ever-so-slightly.

His silence was beginning to make her uncomfortable when he finally decided to speak again.

"Fine," he answered. "We'll forget about it."

Just like that?

But she said nothing and simply nodded.

The bell rang signaling the start of second period causing her to groan out loud.

"Great! I'm late for class. This is all of your fault," she grumbled at Tristan and started to walk away from him.

After taking a few steps she paused then turned back to him.

"Could you, um, tell me where room two thirteen is?"

* * *

"Is it normal to feel this tired when only half the day has gone by? Rory asked, flopping down onto an empty chair beside Paris at lunch later that day. 

"Welcome to Chilton," Paris muttered glaring at her food and proceeded to repeatedly stab at her wilted salad with her fork.

Rory raised her eyebrows at Madeline and Louise who mouthed a quick: "Don't ask."

Rory nodded and proceeded to unpack her lunch.

"I should do that," Paris said, indicating Rory's lunch. "Cafeteria food is beyond disgusting and absolutely inedible. You would think that with all the money we're paying here, they would use some of it to provide us with some decent meals but, that is obviously beyond the scope of their ignorant, incapable brains."

"Ouch," Rory muttered and looked up at the sound of new voices.

"Oh look. It's my four favourite ladies," said Brendan who was accompanied by Austin and Tristan (how lovely).

"Who invited you here?" Paris asked, testily.

"Paris don't you remember?" Tristan asked in mock amazement. "Last night when you came over to my house to profess your undying love for me, you said we were allowed to sit at your lunch table."

Paris threw her fork at his head (which, unfortunately for Rory, he managed to duck) while the others cracked up laughing.

"So Rory, how has your day been so far?" Brendan asked, before Paris decided to throw anything else. "Are you enjoying this lovely place we call hell?"

Rory laughed. "It's tiring."

"Why you would want to come to this place is beyond me," Austin said, grabbing a french fry off of Paris's plate only to have her yell at him.

"What? It's not like you were eating it," he said in defense.

"Very entertaining bunch, aren't we?" Louise asked Rory, watching the two continue to bicker in amusement.

Rory smiled just as Summer siddled up to their table and planted herself on Tristan's lap.

"Hey Tristan," she exclaimed, brightly as he greeted her.

After realizing that there were other people seated at the table, she mumbled her greetings to them as well.

"You know Summer, there are other chairs around here. You know chairs? Those things that are made for you to sit on," Paris said.

"Paris, don't you have some chess club meeting or something to attend?" Summer shot back.

"Ooh, catfight..." Brendan said, grinning.

Rory barely heard him. Her gaze was fixed on Summer and Tristan, who seemed to be enjoying the fact that she was sitting on his lap.

And he wanted to talk that morning.

"Sometimes, I just want to smash her head in with a locker," Paris muttered under her breath.

'Right now I just want to smash DuGrey in the head with a locker,' Rory thought to herself.

"Are you listening to me?" Paris asked.

"What?" Rory asked, snapping out of her thoughts.

Paris followed her gaze towards the couple then turned back to Rory.

"Nothing, huh?" she asked.

"Shut up," Rory grumbled, sinking back into her seat, only to be blessed with the sound of a very high-pitched almost screechy giggle coming from Summer's direction. "What's up with them anyway?"

Paris shrugged. "They're always on-again, off-again. I guess now they're on again."

Rory diverted her attention back to her previously forgotten lunch trying to ignore the funny feeling in her stomach at Paris's words.

Now this was going to be one extremely long school year.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Title:** Love to Hate You

**Author:** Lannah

**Summary:** Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.

**Pairing:** R/T.

**Disclaimer: **I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Gilmore Girls. I have about $2 to my name so if anyone wants to sue me, they won't be getting a whole lot.

* * *

_...simplify the following and take the derivative..._

Rory groaned and dropped her head on her calculus textbook. She had been staring at the same question for the past ten minutes.

Like the dedicated student she was, Rory had decided to make use of her spare period and study for her upcoming calculus test. Three weeks into school and they already had a test. Only her plan was not working out as she had hoped for she was plagued by thoughts other than limits and derivatives.

Tristan had moved on quite quickly but she was not the least bit surprised. She expected it from a guy like him. And it was a good thing, she reasoned because now she knew that his so called "attraction" towards her was simply a mere side effect from endless snow and ice as was her response to the kiss.

Finally coming to terms with her thoughts, Rory re-focused on her calculus text only to let out another groan. It was soon interrupted by the voice of her least favourite person in the whole world although, Summer had become extremely close to knocking Tristan off of that top spot.

"Gilmore, every time I see you, you're studying."

Rory looked up at him. "Then maybe you should stop paying so much attention to me."

Tristan smirked. "Don't flatter yourself."

Rory raised her eyebrows at him. "You know, I'm surprised you even know where the library is."

"You are so funny," he replied mock sarcastically.

"Where's Summer?"

A curious but almost knowing smile overtook his features. "Why do you ask?"

"You two are practically attached at the hip. I'm just surprised she's not around you for once."

The smile remained on his face.

"I'm not jealous," Rory said quickly, "…so get that look off of your face."

Tristan grinned. "I never said you were."

"Yes but, you implied it," Rory replied.

"How?"

Rory did not get a chance to reply and for the first time, she was glad to hear the annoyingly, high-pitch Summer's voice took on whenever she called out Tristan's name, for it saved her from trying to come up with some sort of explanation.

"Tristan! There you are!"

Barely, acknowledging Rory's presence, Summer turned back to Tristan.

"I was thinking," she said softly, running a finger down the front of his blazer, "…you should come over tonight. My parents are going to a benefit dinner and we will have the house all to ourselves…" she finished, pausing for good measure.

Rory suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable. She gazed down intently at her calculus book again.

"Mr. DuGrey," the school librarian suddenly said, seemingly out of nowhere.

Tristan turned and flashed her a smile. "Ms. Rodriguez."

"If you and Miss Sheffield are just going to stand here and chat all day and disturb the other hardworking students, then I suggest you leave."

Tristan nodded and took Summer's hand as he turned to leave. "Later, Gilmore."

Rory did not reply nor look up until after he had left the library.

She sighed.

She was definitely not getting any calculus studying done that period.

* * *

"Roooooorrrryyyyyy," the way too chirpy for a Saturday morning voice of Lorelai sang out. 

Rory groaned as she felt a huge lump jump onto her bed and start bouncing up and down.

"Go away," she moaned.

"Come on, get up! I need some of Luke's coffee before we head to the mall and I'm not going in there by myself if Kirk's there. I need some backup," Lorelai said, jumping off the bed and headed over to the window to draw open the curtains.

"Mom, stop!" Rory groaned as the bright morning sunshine entered the previously dark bedroom. "I'm trying to sleep!"

Rory buried her head underneath her covers trying to return to a particularly enjoyable dream in which she had suddenly gained magical powers, gone off to Hogwarts and transfigured an unsuspecting Summer into a goat.

Well, one could always wish, couldn't they?

"You're awake now," Lorelai pointed out.

"Unfortunately," Rory grumbled.

She finally managed to haul herself out of bed before Lorelai became even more hyperactive and tried other methods to get her out of bed, namely, a bucket full of ice-cold water.

A few, not-so-quiet minutes later, Rory had managed to gain some semblance of awareness as she followed Lorelai into Luke's diner.

"Luke," Lorelai sang out sitting down at the counter. "Rustle me up some grub!"

Luke briefly glanced up from his notepad to give her a confused look.

Noticing this, Lorelai added, "…it's my diner talk."

Luke looked at Rory questioningly.

"Don't ask," she muttered, shaking her head.

"Wasn't going to," Luke replied.

As they were waiting for Luke to bring them their breakfast, Lorelai had spent her time making the salt and pepper shakers actors in a rather dramatic soap opera scene.

"Pepper, how could you do this to me? I'll never forgive you!"

"Your mother is nuts," Luke said to Rory, cutting off Lorelai's voice as he brought over two large stacks of waffles and refilled Lorelai's already finished coffee. "She's scaring my customers."

"I love you too, Luke," Lorelai answered.

Rory tried to stop the smile twitching at the corner of her lips as she noticed the faintest hint of a blush on Luke's cheeks.

"You're not getting anymore coffee," he answered gruffly, walking away.

"What? This is an outrage!" Lorelai shrieked after him. She turned back to Rory grumbling, "No more coffee...who does he think he is?"

"So why are we going to the Hartford mall again?" Rory asked, taking a bite of her waffles.

"I feel the need for some Jimmy Choos," Lorelai replied, turning around to look out the window. "Oh shoot, there's Kirk. We need to leave. Take this to go," she said, indicating their food.

"Why?" Rory asked confused.

"Because he's trying to sell me stuff for the inn and he does not take no for an answer."

* * *

One hour later, Lorelai and Rory had reached the Hartford mall and were currently wandering through a department store. 

"I always wondered why these rich, old socialites get all dressed up to come to the mall," Lorelai mused, not-so-subtly staring at a woman walking past them.

"I know. You would think they would be sitting at home, ordering people to do their shopping for them," Rory quipped.

Stopping to look at a pair of earrings on display, Rory asked, "I thought you hated this store?"

"I do but unfortunately, this is the only way of getting my Choos," Lorelai answered glancing around the store nervously as if hoping to avoid someone.

Noticing this, Rory smiled in amusement. "What are you doing?"

"I'm hoping I won't run into my mother," Lorelai answered. "Then I'd have to deal with...'Lorelai, couldn't have at least fixed your hair before you came out in public'."

She shuddered.

At that moment, they were interrupted by an all-too familiar voice calling out their names.

"Lorelai! Rory!"

Lorelai groaned and looked up at the ceiling. "You really hate me don't you?" she muttered.

"Hi Mom," she answered, turning around to face Emily Gilmore.

"My, what a surprise," Emily exclaimed. "You girls, should have told me you were coming to the mall. We could have carpooled."

"Good thing we didn't..."

The sarcasm was either lost on Emily, or she simply chose to ignore it.

"Hello Rory, dear," Emily said, giving Rory a hug.

"Hi grandma."

Emily looked at the shoe Lorelai was holding in her hands. "Lorelai, do you like that?"

"Uh..."

Emily took the shoe from her and hailed over a hovering sales clerk. "Would you get this in her size?"

Turning back to Lorelai, she assumed a disgusted face. "Lorelai, couldn't you have at least fixed your hair?"

"I couldn't find a comb."

"Honestly Lorelai," Emily huffed and then brightened up. "You know it is a good thing I ran into you two. You can help me look for some new tablecloths."

Lorelai groaned under her breath. "Mom, you have enough tablecloths to last you into your next life. Why do you need more?"

"I was thinking we needed something special for your father's birthday dinner this Friday," Emily answered.

"So, why not just jump out of a cake?"

"You're not funny, Lorelai."

Trying to keep the smile off of her face, Rory turned to her grandmother. "Grandma, do you mind if I head over to the bookstore?"

"Oh, of course not dear. Go ahead. You mother and I will meet up with you later."

"What? Why doesn't she have to look for tablecloths?" Lorelai whined.

"Oh honestly, Lorelai," Emily huffed again, walking away.

"You owe me," Lorelai muttered to Rory and followed Emily towards the linen department.

* * *

Aside from the fact that she was completely tone deaf and had no musically vocal sensibility whatsoever, Rory found herself humming as she thumbed through the pages of a book. Strange as it may be, the bookstore or library always put her at ease. It was a very stress-relieving pastime. 

After deciding on something to read she headed for cozy couch in a corner of the store only to find herself walking into what seemed like a rock hard wall.

Only it was not a wall, she realized after putting out a hand to steady herself and looked up to find herself staring into a pair of piercing blue eyes.

Was the universe suddenly against her? She was always finding herself somewhere in the vicinity of Tristan.

"Gilmore, you should really watch where you're going."

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"I know that you think I'm so hot and everything," Tristan said bending down to pick up her fallen book, "…but you really don't have to go out of your way to find ways to touch me," he continued, blue eyes twinkling in amusement.

A blush crept up her cheeks as Rory realized she was still holding onto him.

So that was why they were unnaturally close to each other.

Immediately, she pulled her hands away and grabbed the book he held out to her.

Then she realized something. Tristan DuGrey was in a bookstore.

Why was he in a bookstore? He had trouble even finding the school library.

Unfortunately, she realized her previous thought actually turned out to be voiced out loud as she found him grinning at her.

"Well Mary, contrary to popular belief, I do find my way in here sometimes because I do read a book once in a while...willingly."

At her raised eyebrows, he continued on grinning wickedly, "…but, there are other times when I notice pretty girls in here so I take that as my opportunity to come in and talk to them."

Rory rolled her eyes, trying to ignore the sudden onset of butterflies in her stomach.

"Don't you have a girlfriend?" she asked, grumpily.

"And?"

"Shouldn't you _not_ be flirting with other girls?"

"Who said I was flirting?"

Rory rolled her eyes again. He was so annoying.

Tristan smiled at her expression. "And I wouldn't exactly call Summer my girlfriend…"

His voice trailed off.

Thankfully though, she was saved from having to give a response.

"Rory! There you are."

She had never ever in her life, been so happy to hear her grandmother's voice.

"Hi grandma," Rory answered, trying to ignore the inquisitive looks Lorelai was shooting at her as her gaze flew back and forth between Tristan and Rory.

"We found the most perfect tablecloths," Emily said happily, waving a shopping bag around.

"At the expense of almost killing myself..." Lorelai added.

Emily ignored her once again, her smile widening as she finally seemed to notice Tristan standing beside Rory.

"And who is this dashing young man?"

Dashing? Tristan DuGrey was not _dashing_.

"This is my…friend," and Rory used that term extremely loosely,"…Tristan DuGrey. He goes to Chilton as well."

"I thought you looked familiar!" Emily exclaimed. "You're Janlen's grandson."

Tristan smiled (the charming smile that was sure to get even the oldest of women to fall for anything he said).

"Nice to meet you," he said, shaking Emily's hand.

Just by the look on her grandmother's face, Rory knew Emily was beginning to fall for the DuGrey charm.

That smile was lethal. She would know.

"Emily Gilmore," she said introducing herself. "I'm Rory's grandmother."

The smile arrived again.

"Really?" Tristan asked. "I never would have guessed you had a granddaughter. You look way too young."

Emily giggled. It was too late. She had been sucked into the Tristan vortex. Rory swore she almost saw her swoon.

"Oh, stop it. You're too kind."

At Lorelai's cough, she hastily added, "…and this is my daughter, Lorelai. She is Rory's mother."

"…and please don't attempt to sweet-talk me," Lorelai added as she shook Tristan's hand.

"Lorelai, please!" Emily exclaimed.

Turning back to Tristan, Emily asked: "So how is your grandfather, dear?"

Lorelai nudged Rory.

"Can you believe this?" she whispered, indicating the two who began chatting away as if they were long-time friends.

"She giggled. She actually giggled like some school girl. I think she has boy crush," Lorelai continued, smiling wickedly.

"Yeah, Tristan does do that to you," Rory commented, eyes still focused on Tristan and Emily. Upon noticing the look Lorelai turned on her, she added: "…not that I would know or anything…"

Lorelai nodded knowingly then turned back to Emily and Tristan. "I wonder what Dad would have to say about this," she mused.

Rory could not help but laugh. Her laughter soon stopped though when she heard some very unwanted words coming from her grandmother's mouth.

"...Janlen is coming to Richard's birthday dinner on Friday. Tristan, you should come as well."

"Well, I would not want to impose," Tristan said, his gaze focusing upon Rory.

Like hell he would not want to impose. Rory knew that expression on his face all too well.

"Nonsense," said Emily. "You would not be imposing at all. You would actually be helping because Rory will have someone her own age there."

"I'd be perfectly fine by myself, Grandma..."

Emily ignored her. "It is settled. You will come to dinner on Friday. I will talk to your grandfather about it."

Tristan nodded then bid them goodbye as Emily made to head out of the store.

"Bye Mary," he added in an undertone, as she walked past him.

Rory sighed heavily as she walked away. She could feel his eyes burning into the back of her head. This week's Friday night dinner was going to be nothing short of interesting.

* * *

AN: If only I could think of something interesting…any suggestions? 

I got bored and decided to post another chapter although I was kind of lazy with the proofreading so I apologize for any mistakes.

All the editing of existing chapters are finally finished, now comes the hard part – thinking of new things to write. That should be fun (note the sarcasm lol).

Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I appreciate the fact that you actually do review and all your comments!

Now I have to go watch me some of The Office. I love that show. It's high-larious (as Mark from Ugly Betty would say haha).


	8. Chapter Eight

**Author:** Lannah

**Summary:** Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.

**Pairing:** R/T.

* * *

Glasses clinked. 

People talked.

People laughed.

And Rory was stuck listening to the swell of the music and chatter from the kitchen with only herself for company.

Well, she and the flirty conversation coming from her grandparents' new maid – Macy, was it? – and the Devil himself, Tristan.

Usually, Rory was all for the prospect of being excused from a party her Grandparents' held; however, after being told to keep Tristan company for the remainder of Richard's birthday party and having Emily check in on her every five minutes to make sure she had not deserted the 'poor boy,' Rory found herself wholly welcoming the prospect of returning to the party and listening half-heartedly to endless conversations of mergers and shareholder values and other meaningless business conversation.

Emily would not allow it though. She claimed Rory had invited Tristan to the party – to which Rory had pointed out that it was actually _she_, Emily who had done the inviting, which Emily ignored – and that Rory simply could not leave him to fend for himself.

Well, Tristan was certainly fending for himself just fine at the moment, Rory noted sourly as Macy giggled at something he had just said. She brought over some more cheesecake which Rory immediately dove into.

"Macy!" Macy's giggling was cut short by Emily's snappy voice. "It's time for the hors d'oeuvres. And please, make yourself useful and go tidy the guest closet."

Macy immediately looked sheepish and disappeared from the kitchen without a backwards glance.

The heavy silence that settled over the room was periodically interrupted by Rory's fork clinking against her plate.

She could feel Tristan's eyes on her.

Finally, she looked up, blue eyes meeting blue.

He grinned.

Rory rolled her eyes and spoke up.

"I thought people with girlfriends aren't supposed to be flirting with other girls?"

Tristan's mouth curled into a smirk.

"You obviously do not know guys' first rule of dating, Mary."

Why did he have to be such an ass?

"Besides," Tristan continued, "…who said I had a girlfriend?"

"You know, you keep saying that. Is it really that hard not to notice the constant presence of Summer at your side?" Rory asked sarcastically.

"And yet you keep asking me that question," Tristan countered.

A gleam was present in his eye which annoyed Rory to no end. It was too much of a knowing look. As if he knew something about her that she herself didn't.

She didn't reply and continued to eat her cheesecake in silence.

"One would think that you're always looking at me, Gilmore," Tristan continued.

Rory ignored him.

"I mean why else would you notice this so-called constant presence of Summer at my side?"

"It was a rhetorical question," she grunted stabbing her cheesecake so forcefully, the fork made a loud scraping sound against the plate.

Thoroughly annoyed, Rory dropped her fork. Even cheesecake could not cure whatever it was that she was feeling. She herself did not know what she was feeling.

Tristan broke the silence that had settled upon them again.

"Summer and I aren't together," he said shortly. "She's not my girlfriend, we're not dating, we're not seeing each other…we're not…anything."

"That's somewhat hard to believe," Rory muttered disbelievingly.

"Summer and I…." He paused for a moment. "It's complicated. But, whatever _it_ is…it's over. For good this time," he added as an afterthought.

"Well good for you then," Rory replied, her eyes wandering all over the kitchen except in his general direction as silence settled over them once more.

"Rory…" Tristan started quietly but he was interrupted by Lorelai entering the kitchen.

"Save me, please!" Lorelai moaned.

Making her way over to the kitchen table she dropped down on the unoccupied chair beside Rory and grabbed her unfinished cheesecake.

"If I have to listen to another conversation about who can do better business than the other," she grumbled through a mouth full of cheesecake, "…I swear I will shoot someone."

"That bad?" Rory asked sympathetically.

"Worse," Lorelai answered.

Looking around at the two sitting at the table, she continued: "So what are you two doing?"

Rory shrugged. "Nothing. Grandma actually let you leave?"

"Mmm hmm…well no. I snuck out when she wasn't looking," Lorelai replied slowly, her gaze focusing on Tristan who was still staring intently at Rory.

Before she could make any other comment though, Lorelai was interrupted by Emily's entrance into the kitchen.

"Lorelai, there are some people who would like to speak with you," Emily stated primly. "I would really appreciate it if you would stop leaving your father's party to go somewhere else and sulk."

Lorelai rolled her eyes and stood up from the table as Rory tried to hide a smile.

As she made to leave the kitchen, Lorelai added to Rory: "Quick, steal me a bottle of wine from their stash…make that two bottles…I'm going to need it."

"Don't you already have alcohol out there?" Tristan piped in.

"Hush, blond one," Lorelai answered. "And I can't really drink myself to sleep in front of all those people now can I? It would be highly improper," she said faking a very good Emily impression.

"You know what," Rory said hurriedly standing from her chair and started to follow Lorelai out of the room, "I'll come with you."

* * *

About a half of an hour later, Rory had made her way to her bedroom in her Grandparents' house in a ditch effort at losing Tristan. She was currently curled up on her window seat, staring out the window into the impeccably landscaped backyard. 

She knew he would find her though.

He always found her.

Even when she did not wish to be found.

So many things were rushing through her mind at the moment she needed to clear her head and have some time alone to think.

She sighed as a gentle breeze blew threw her slightly open window.

She should not have been as happy as she was upon hearing the news that Tristan and Summer were 'no more.'

But she was. Happy. Relieved even.

Rory groaned.

"This can't be happening."

After all this time, after all her precautions against it, she found herself falling – no, already fallen – for Tristan DuGrey.

At that moment, she decided that her likeness for the boy, no matter how small in proportion would need to be extinguished. Immediately.

A voice at the door interrupted her musings.

"You know Gilmore, it's not very nice to leave your guest alone at a party."

Rory glanced over towards the doorway. He had ditched his blazer. The top few buttons of his shirt were still undone as they had been previously albeit more noticeable at the moment.

She was so fighting a losing battle.

"You're not _my_ guest," was her slightly frosty reply.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Tristan sauntered into the room a small smile on his face.

"So this is your room…" he said by way of reply. "It's very…pink."

Rory found herself cracking a smile. A real one. Out of her own free will.

"My Grandparents' figured it was what every teenage girl dreamt about."

He chuckled softly, stopping at her bed. Waving his hand towards it, he asked: "May I?"

Rory's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You're actually asking my permission?"

Tristan grinned again and sat down. "I would have sat even if you did say no."

Rory rolled her eyes. Although this time, it was more in jest than in annoyance.

Maybe Macy had put something in her cheesecake.

"Why are you so quiet tonight, Mary?" he asked.

"I'm always quiet," Rory answered slightly turning to face him.

"Yes but this time it's more of a leave me alone kind of quiet," Tristan continued.

"Well it's a good thing you're smart enough to pick up on that," Rory replied mock sarcastically. "Now if only you'd follow through with it."

Tristan laughed again. "And why would I want to do that? I like having you around, Gilmore."

For some odd reason, Rory felt a strange fluttering sensation in the pit of her stomach.

"Even when I'm moody and trying to ignore you?"

"Even when you're moody and trying to ignore me," Tristan said a slight smile on his face.

Rory was quiet for a few moments, then completely turning her attention to Tristan she asked: "Why do you like me?"

Tristan raised an eyebrow in question. "Who said I did?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "I'm serious. I'm not joking. Why?"

Tristan regarded her closely for a minute with a look on his face that she could not quite place.

Finally, he shrugged and said simply, "I just do."

There was something else present in his voice. As if he were holding back something from her.

"Yes but why? Let's face it Tristan. As much as it pains me to say this, you can have any girl in the school you wanted. So why me?"

Recognition dawned on Tristan's face.

"You think what happened over winter break was a joke?" He asked a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

Rory did not reply. She was currently busy studying the appearance of her nail beds.

"That's low, Gilmore," Tristan muttered. "Even for whatever it is you think of me."

"Well can you blame me?" Rory asked heatedly, looking up to face him once more. "I've only been at Chilton for a month now and your reputation with girls isn't exactly a big secret."

Tristan let out a long breath. "You're different," he answered shortly. "And yes, I've had a few girlfriends-"

Rory let out a disbelieving snort.

"Fine," Tristan said impatiently,"…a little more than a few. But Rory, I'm a guy! Can you really blame me?"

He paused for a moment and then continued. "I don't do it on purpose. You know to make myself look like a player or something. I figure you kind of have to date around until you find the right person."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Rory muttered.

"Well, whether or not you agree with my way of thinking," Tristan said, the annoyance creeping back into his voice, "…doesn't matter now does it?

Rory said nothing.

Tristan sighed and spoke again, his tone significantly softer than before.

"I just…I haven't found a girl who I really really like. Who I can see myself actually wanting to be in a relationship with. Well, until now."

Rory's head snapped up quickly.

What did he just say?

Tristan let out a disbelieving laugh. "And we haven't even gone on a date yet so that has to be saying something."

Rory resumed fiddling with her dress again her gaze focusing outside the window once more.

They were silent for a few moments until Tristan spoke up.

"You know what I think," Tristan said slowly getting up off the bed and walking towards her.

He stopped right in front of her, entirely too close for comfort.

Rory nervously fidgeted with the hem of her dress.

She did not like him this close.

Whenever he was close it messed with her already messed up brain.

"I think that you like me," Tristan continued.

"And I think that you were dropped on your head one too many times as a child," Rory countered.

Tristan continued to speak as if he had not heard her. "You like me but, you won't admit it because liking me goes against everything you have ever set for yourself."

Surprisingly, Tristan was exceptionally good at reading people's feelings, Rory had to admit. Which in her case was definitely not a good thing.

But he was right. The reckless, bad boy type had not been on her potential boyfriends' characteristics list.

Rory looked up to meet his rather intense gaze. She could never force herself to look away from his eyes. They were magnetic, almost hypnotic and right now they were no exception.

"Is that really such a bad thing though," Tristan asked softly, lightly taking her hand.

Rory felt an unexpected shiver creep through her at his touch.

"I mean some of the best things in life come from things that you would never have expected."

Rory gulped and tried unabashedly to tear her gaze away from his.

A few more seconds of intent staring and who knew what would have happened.

Fortunately, she was saved from having to reply to his sentiment as a loud voice interrupted them.

"Rory. Tristan. There you two are!" Emily exclaimed standing in the doorway.

Tristan dropped Rory's hand so quickly it was if he had been burned.

"We're going to cut your grandfather's cake now, so please come down," Emily said.

Rory let out an extremely relieved breath she had not realized she had been holding.

"Of course, Grandma," Rory said getting up from the window seat and distanced herself as much as possible from Tristan. "We're coming."

"Well, hurry up," Emily said casting the two suspicious glances as they followed her out of the room.

It was a few minutes later as the guests were singing Happy Birthday to Richard while he blew out his candles on his birthday cake with Tristan standing beside his grandfather a large smile on his face, that Rory realized her plan to extinguish her liking of a certain, very good looking, blue-eyed boy, had failed miserably.

* * *

**A.N. **I'm sorry for the incredibly long wait between chapters. I guess this chapter is probably not as long as some would have liked but I think any more and it would have been repetitive. 

And as always, feedback is extremely appreciated!


	9. Chapter Nine

**Title:** Love to Hate You

**Author:** Lannah

**Summary:** Students at Chilton head to Eagle Mountain for a ski trip, during the course of the winter holidays. Rory and Tristan meet under slightly different circumstances.

**Pairing:** R/T.

**Disclaimer: **I am in no way, shape or form, affiliated with Gilmore Girls. I have about 2 to my name so if anyone wants to sue me, they won't be getting a whole lot.

* * *

Okay

Peering out from behind her locker to a hallway devoid of Tristan DuGrey, Rory breathed a small sigh of relief.

Yes. She was avoiding him. Again.

Rory was beginning to think that she had confrontation problems. Every time something significant happened between her and Tristan, she would clam up and avoid the situation in hopes that everything would eventually blow over or until he made the first move – which he usually did.

This time was different though. After noticing she was avoiding him when she turned and practically sprinted away in the opposite direction after Tristan had called out to her (she found out later that he had only yelled her name because she had left her calculus textbook on her desk), _he _now seemed to be avoiding _her_.

Or ignoring her.

Possibly both – she was not quite sure although, she was leaning towards the ignoring option.

Rory supposed she had been rather cold and distant towards him after the cutting of the cake at her grandfather's party two nights ago. In other words, she had not spoken more than two words to Tristan since then and she was now getting the sense that he might possibly be a little angry at her.

In her defence though, it was not her fault that her mind was so incredibly screwed up. She needed all of the alone time she could get to sort through the jumble of crazy thoughts running through her head at lightening-fast speed.

Simply, she needed time away from him because whenever he was around, he somehow – she did not know how – minimized her overly-analytical habits, turning her brain fuzzy, useless and very un-Rory like.

"Rory, are you listening to a word I'm saying?" Paris's impatient voice snapped at her, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Huh? Oh yeah...newspaper meeting...today..." Rory trailed off, her gaze now locked on a specific messy head of hair that had now materialized in front of his locker.

"Why are you always staring at him?" Paris asked, visibly annoyed. "_You_ constantly looking at _him_ is going to give him the impression that you like him. Isn't that what you've been trying to avoid this whole time?"

"I'm not always staring at him," Rory denied hastily but somehow her gaze managed to magnetically find its way over to Tristan's direction once more.

She sighed at Paris's disbelieving look as she shut her locker door and they began making their way towards the cafeteria for lunch.

"It's just that...why is he ignoring me?" Rory paused. "Okay, I know _why_ he's ignoring me but he's never really done that before. It's weird. And it's not my fault...well, maybe it is a little but he should expect that from me. It's only normal. If I don't act like this then something would be wrong."

Paris looked suspiciously at Rory for a moment assumingly trying to comprehend her insane rambling and then her eyes widened.

"No!"

"Shut up," Rory muttered.

"But, you-"

"But, I nothing!"

"You don't..."

"I don't."

"You do!"

If possible, Paris's eyes grew even wider.

Rory groaned in defeat.

"It wasn't supposed to happen! Why did it happen? What is wrong with me?" she all but whined.

Paris remained silent, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Rory rolled her eyes. "This is the part where you are supposed to tell me that nothing is wrong with me. That I'm completely normal. That me acting like this is completely normal."

"You're not normal, Gilmore," was Paris's abrupt reply. "But, nothing is wrong with you," she added. "Tristan finally managed to get to you. I will give you credit though. You hung in there longer than most."

Rory glared at her. "Youre not helping."

Paris shrugged. "Im not here to help."

Entering the cafeteria, they made their way over to the lunch line.

"Look, the way I see it," Paris said, making a face at the glob of mashed potatoes that was now unceremoniously plopped onto her plate, "...whatever it is that you did or did not do, Tristan's not going to be the one trying to fix it anymore. So before everyone leaves for spring break tomorrow, I suggest you figure out what you're going to do about it."

She paid for her meal and headed over to a table where Madeline and Louise were already sitting leaving Rory standing in the lunch line, pondering her last words.

"The ball is in your court now, Gilmore."

* * *

She would do it. She would muster up the courage to just go over and talk to him.

She was brave - somewhat.

Bracing herself, Rory made a beeline for his locker hoping he would still be there. Preferably alone.

On her walk over, her mind tried to run through everything she would say or should say to him but she could not think of anything. She did not know what to tell him - especially after what he had said to her in her room. It was as if he could read her mind. And Tristan understanding how her mind worked better than she herself did, was just plain scary.

Rory paused in the middle of the hallway.

What would she say to him? "Hey Tristan, I think I like you now. Is it cool if we forget about my ignoring you all the time and acting like there was nothing between us and pretend it never happened?"

Like that would go over well.

She was not quite sure what the protocol was when confronting potential boyfriends.

She froze again. She just thought 'potential _boyfriend.'_

_Oh dear._

Talk about jumping ahead of herself.

Hearing voices, Rory looked up quickly and found the eyes of the boy she was sort-of-hoping-but-not-hoping-to find, looking directly back at her.

He was not supposed to _see_ her. Not now when she had found another way to force a panic attack unto herself.

However, what with the way he was looking at her, she could not help it. She did the only thing she knew – she turned back in the direction from which she had come and disappeared down the hallway.

She would confront him later. That is, if she did not find herself in a psychiatrist's office by that time as a result of an intense anxiety attack.

* * *

"Well, well, well. This is quite a surprise," a chirpy voice answered after Rory had dialled the number. "I thought you'd forgotten about me, Gilmore, now that you've joined the upper rankings of the elite schooling system."

Rory let out a giggle at the latter sarcastic remark. "You're one of them, Aleesha, give or take a couple of hours of driving," she pointed out. "And speaking of driving, I'm not the one who continuously cancels our plans to get together."

Aleesha let out a mock sigh. "It's not my fault I'm such a busy person with so many things on my plate."

"If you can count cancelling on me because you were afraid you'd miss Prison Break, as things on your plate."

"It's called an hour of Wentworth Miller, Gilmore."

"It's called TIVO, Evans."

"Touché," Aleesha replied with a laugh. "So what do I owe this lovely phone call during the middle of my lunch break?"

Rory sighed. "I need advice."

"Tristan?"

"How'd you know?"

"He seems to be the reason for all your advice needs lately."

Rory let out a short, humourless laugh and proceeded to fill Aleesha in on the recent developments (or really, the opposite of 'developments') between Tristan and herself.

"Who would have thought that I would be like this over a guy?" Rory asked, albeit more to herself.

"Have you seen the boy?" was Aleesha's response.

"That's no excuse."

"So you're finally admitting out loud that he is incredibly, gorgeously, beautiful?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "Not in those words but, I have admitted it before."

Aleesha giggled on the other end of the line. "Alright, here's my two cents, for what it's worth. Tristan probably thinks you're stringing him along – don't interrupt me and try to deny it," she added cutting off Rory's beginnings of a protest, "…which means, he is probably feeling quite hurt right now beneath his tough, 'I'm-so-cool' shell and so the only way for him to deal with the fact that you're not going to do anything about the situation is to ignore you and hope he forgets about everything eventually. You both seem quite similar in that respect."

Rory wrinkled her nose at the phone. "What are you, a shrink?"

"No, but my mother is. I've listened in on her conversations many a time."

Rory could not help but laugh.

"It's up to you, Rory."

"That's what Paris said," Rory murmured, dejectedly.

"Well, that Paris is a wise one," Aleesha answered. "Scary, but wise."

Rory smiled sadly to herself. "I've screwed it up haven't I?"

"Just a little."

She laughed. "Thanks Leesh."

"Anytime, Gilmore," Aleesha replied. "And if you and Tristan do hook up by tomorrow, you're allowed to cancel on our plans this weekend."

* * *

Taking a deep breath, Rory finally made her way over to Tristan after school when she spotted him by his car.

"Hey," she mumbled as she approached his car.

Tristan looked up in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

He sounded slightly bitter.

"Oh you know, just trying to figure out which of these cars I should ask my Grandparents for as a gift for my birthday," Rory said airily, waving her hand absently.

He looked at her appraisingly for a moment then turned away and threw his backpack onto the back seat of his car.

When he failed to speak again, Rory spoke up once more. The cold-shoulder? Not really working for her.

"Look I wanted to talk to you," she said, somewhat uncertainly.

"Oh, so now you'd like to talk."

What was his problem?

Um…what?" Rory asked confused.

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about," Tristan muttered.

When she did not respond this time, he let out an annoyed sigh.

"Rory, I can't deal with this anymore," Tristan said finally, turning to face her.

Now what did Aleesha mention to her, again?

"Deal with what?" Rory asked dumbly.

What was he so pissy about? She had made the effort to come over here and talk to him first. That should count for something.

Tristan sighed again. "This!" he exclaimed. "I've been patient. I haven't bugged you...much. I gave you an opening the other night. You could have taken it. You could have done anything, but no. You choose to ignore me and avoid me again," he snapped.

"We were interrupted," Rory answered shortly.

"You had the rest of the night. Not to mention, the last two days."

"Wait a minute," Rory said in disbelief, comprehension (or what she thought was comprehension) dawning on her. "You're mad at me because I didn't tell you what you wanted to hear the other night?"

Tristan rolled his eyes.

"You don't get it do you?" he asked exasperatedly. "Rory, you play me hot and cold. One minute I think, hey we just might be getting somewhere and every time I think that maybe, just maybe, youre coming around, that you can actually think about even being my friend at least, you start giving me the cold shoulder all over again and it's like I've taken two steps back."

Rory stared at him incredulously at a complete loss for words. Well, forget everything Aleesha had said.

"I'm playing you hot and cold? She asked furiously. "Me? You're the one who has been avoiding me all morning-"

"Because I'm tired of this bullshit-"

"- and you're always moody –"

"-because of you!"

"-and you're telling me that I'm playing you? You're worse than a pms-ing girl! See, this is why _I_ can't deal with _you_!" Rory snapped angrily, glaring at him.

"Oh really?" he asked equally angry, taking a step closer to her. "Then tell me why, one minute you act as if you cannot stand me and the next, you're holding your breath when I come within a few inches of you."

Rory gulped. So he was right. His proximity to her had caused her heart to start racing and her brain to slowly start going fuzzy on her.

"I don't hold my breath when you're near me," Rory mumbled, avoiding his gaze and taking a step backwards.

Tristan took a step forward, seemingly unfazed. "No?"

"No, I-" Rory's defiant sentence was cut short as her next step backwards was blocked by the car beside his.

The smug, self-satisfied expression which crossed his face caused her to snap.

"Why won't you just leave me alone?" she cried. "I told you from the beginning and a million times more after that, that I was not interested. I'm not interested so why won't you just get that through your head and leave me alone?"

She regretted the words even before she had finished her sentences and all the more so as she watched the features on Tristan's face harden.

"Well, if I had not gotten it through my head before, then I certainly have now," he stated icily, his jaw clenched.

Rory sucked in a deep breath. "That's not what I...I didn't mean for it to come out like that..."

"Well luckily for you, you won't have to deal with me for a whole week since I'll be in another state," he muttered turning back to his car and made a move to get in.

"What?" Rory asked, surprised. She had not heard him mention anything about going anywhere for spring break. "Where are you going?"

"Look Gilmore, as much as I would love to stay and continue this lovely chat we are having, I have to take care of a couple of things before I miss my flight."

"Where are you going?" Rory asked again, dumbly.

He could not leave.

She had to tell him what was really on her mind and take back her previously angry words that she did not mean even though he was being kind of an ass before.

"California," he answered shortly. "I'm going with my father on his business trip."

"But we still have school tomorrow."

Wow, could she get any lamer?

"Well, I'm vacationing one day early," was his annoyed response.

He started his car and gunned the engine loudly.

"Tristan..." Rory started to say but he cut her off.

He nodded at a car beside him. "If you're actually going to do it, you should ask for the Mercedes CLK. It's classic. Elegant."

His gaze lingered on her for a second too long and before she could blink, he zoomed out of the parking lot.

* * *

"You should call him before he leaves," Lane said, absentmindedly twirling a strand of hair.

It had been an hour since that incident in the parking lot. Rory had called Lane over as soon as she returned home from school.

"Wait! No!" Lane exclaimed, shooting up excitedly from her spot on the couch. "You should find out what flight he's on, show up at the airport and just before he boards the plane, profess your undying love for him," she practically gushed.

"We are not a part of a cheesy, romantic comedy, Lane," Rory replied. And since when did you become so sappy or even watch those things?"

"My mother has now banned all romantic comedies from the Kim house. Apparently they portray unforgiving boy-girl interactions. So I've decided to watch as much as I can to see what Ive been missing."

Rory could not help but laugh.

"Maybe you should at least call him though."

"And say what?"

Lane shrugged.

Rory sighed. "He probably left for the airport already."

"I'm sure he has a cell phone."

Rory lingered for a moment, then making a quick decision, she picked up the phone and dialled Tristans number.

He answered, somewhat out of breath, after a few rings.

"It's me," she said quickly before she lost her nerve. She had to fix everything.

There was a distinct pause before Tristan replied with an "Oh."

At Lane's encouraging look, Rory chose to ignore the tone of his voice.

"Look, Tristan," she started, "…I feel bad about what happened earlier and I don't want us to leave things like we did..."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it," he replied shortly.

"No it's not," Rory protested. "You're right-"

Tristan cut her off with a sigh. "I told you, it's fine," he then added, "…look Rory, I really have to go if I want to catch my flight."

"Oh, right. Sorry," Rory muttered quietly, swallowing back a surprising lump in her throat. "I still wanted to apologize though-"

"Fine. Apology accepted."

"Well good," Rory said slowly. "So we're cool then?"

"Sure, whatever," he answered impatiently and Rory snapped.

"Damnit, Tristan! Don't you realize that I'm trying to tell you that I like you?"

Her eyes widened.

Lane's eyes widened.

Uh-oh.

Those words were not supposed to come out of her mouth.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

More silence.

"Umm…hello…?" she asked uncertainly, almost afraid to hear his answer.

No reply.

Did he hang up on her? That Jackass!

"Tristan, are you still there?"

"Yeah…" was his slow reply.

"Okay…."

Some more nerve-wracking silence.

She chewed on her lip nervously trying to avoid the questioning looks Lane was throwing at her.

When he still did not reply, she sighed and asked: "Are you going to say anything?"

"I'm not really sure what to say…" his voice trailed off.

He did not know what to say? This was so not going the way she had hoped for. Actually, she was not completely sure _what_ it is she had hoped for.

"Oh," Rory said, forcing brightness into her voice. "It was kind of unexpected wasn't it? Well, I'm going to let you go…you have your flight and all…so yeah…I guess I will see you back at school…I think…"

There was still no reply from him.

"Okay then, bye!" Rory said quickly and hung up the phone.

Noticing the sympathetic look Lane was giving her, Rory groaned and dropped back down onto the couch, burying her head in her hands.

"I hate my life," she mumbled, as Lane patted her back sympathetically. "Why did I go skiing? Why did I go to Chilton?"

* * *

Forget diamonds. Chocolate and ice-cream were a girl's _true _best friends.

Not too long after her awkward phone conversation with Tristan, Lane had left saying something about an early afternoon curfew. Rory had resorted to finding anything chocolate in sight and settled herself in front of the television for an evening of mindless channel surfing.

Not too long after, she was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.

Rory looked up from the television set confused. No one ever rang doorbells in Stars Hollow. It was either yell out one's presence or barge right on in.

Grudgingly hauling herself off of the couch, Rory headed over to answer the door. What greeted her on the other side of the door caught her completely off guard.

Tristan looked up from staring at his shoes and straightened himself from leaning on the doorpost, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"What are you doing here?" Rory asked in surprise, feeling her heart rate speed up.

Seriously, if the boy could cause a reaction like that from her by simply standing there, she had no hope.

"Well, after a phone call like that, how do you expect me to get on a plane to Cali?" he asked with a small grin. "Besides, spring break on a business trip with my father is about as much fun as it sounds."

"Oh," Rory muttered, dumbly. She was still in shock over his sudden appearance at her doorstep.

"So…," Tristan said, looking at her questioningly.

Rory sighed. "Look, I'm sorry I've been such a jerk to you recently, it's just that I-"

Before she could finish her sentence though, Tristan had moved closer to her, grabbing her waist and pulling her flush against his frame.

"No more talking, Gilmore," he whispered, lowering his mouth to her ear and causing her breath to hitch in her throat and a variety of tingles to make their way down her back. "You talk way too much."

Then suddenly his lips were on hers, kissing her like she'd never been kissed before. This kiss was definitely not like the first one in the snow which although still quite intoxicating, was sweet and innocent.

This one – not so much on the sweet side. This kiss was more intoxicating, hungry, rough and well, dare she say it, _hot_. He had now backed her against the open door, his body flush against hers and his lips expertly working against hers, deepening the kiss. His hands were _everywhere_, leaving trails of goose bumps all over her body – they travelled across her shoulders, down her arms, on her hips, back up to her face, entangled in her hair…when had her ponytail become loose? All Rory could do was grip onto his neck for dear life and feverishly kiss him back.

All too soon though, he was pulling his lips away from hers, causing Rory to let out an audible yet breathless, moan.

"I won't be able to kiss you like that again if I don't breathe right now," Tristan said quietly, chuckling.

"Breathing's overrated," Rory replied, a small smile crossing her face and letting her fingers run through his hair.

"Really," Tristan said, his familiar smirk crossing his face as he lowered his head towards hers once again, his lips a breath away from hers.

Whatever else he was about to say or do was cut short though as Rory's eyes widened and she stiffened against him.

How could she forget?

"Rory?" Tristan asked, warily taking in her expression and frozen form. "Look, whatever you do, just please don't run. Not again."

Rory blinked moving her gaze away from a point beyond his shoulder and stared up at him, surprised.

"Run?" she questioned. "I'm not going to run."

She grinned slyly. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't run. Not after a kiss like that."

Tristan stared at her obviously confused. "You're so weird, Gilmore. Then what are you freaking out about now?"

Rory sighed, letting her fingers run down the front of the school shirt he was still wearing. Feeling his muscles tense under her fingers, she smiled to herself inwardly.

"I forgot about my nosy neighbours," she nodded her head in the direction behind him. "It's Babette. Spying on me."

Tristan turned slightly and caught sight of a blonde head disappearing behind some curtains.

Rory groaned and buried her head in the crook of his neck. It felt rather nice even if she did feel another panic attack about to come on. "She's so going to tell my mother about what she saw."

"So?" Tristan questioned, seemingly unfazed.

"So?" Rory asked, looking up at him incredulously. "Do you _know_ what that kiss must have looked like? My mother's going to kill me…"

Tristan grinned wickedly. "Well, let's have the last few moments of your life go out with a bang then, shall we?"

Rory shook her head ruefully. "You're terrible," she muttered but even as the words came out she could not resist the magnetic pull of his eyes and especially that of his mouth.

"You know you want it," was Tristan's last words as his mouth covered hers and once again, she found herself entangled in his arms.

As Rory lost herself in his amazing kisses all over again, she retracted a certain thought she had had before. She was actually _very_ glad she had gone on that ski trip after all.

The End

* * *

AN: Wow, finally. I can't believe it's been over a year since my last update. I hope the last chapter was worth it. I didn't mean to end it quite so suddenly but with my ridiculously long waits between updates, I figured I should.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story and read it (and to those who will read it!) and reviewed. I really do appreciate it. Thank you again!


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